Persona 3: Of Reapers and Shadows
by Vince329
Summary: The game has changed this time around. The stakes are high as Neku Sakuraba and S.E.E.S. work together to discover why they have been brought into the Reaper's Game, and what their ultimate purpose is. P3 x TWEWY
1. Chapter 1: What the hell is going on?

**Hello people, I'm gonna try something slightly different.  
For this story, it'll be a crossover fic between the Persona series and TWEWY. Taking place a few weeks after the end of the true ending in Persona 4. **

**IMPORTANT NOTE: IT WON'T BE CANON WITH THE UPCOMING PERSONA 4 ARENA GAME COMING OUT IN AUGUST 7.**

**Until then, enjoy the chapter.**

**Reviews, please and thank you.**

* * *

Persona: Of Reapers and Shadows

Chapter 1: What the hell is going on?

* * *

"...ngh, my head,"

"...ow, what the..."

Two people awoke from their unconscious state, in the middle of a gigantic crossroad.

The first person was a light brown haired girl. She wore a pink sweater shirt with a red bow, black skirt reaching just at her thighs, black stockings with white lines on the side and brown leather shoes. From the looks of her attire, it would be safe to assume that she is a student. The most noticable features are: the signature choker with a heart on it that she wears on her neck, and a red armband with the abbreviation, S.E.E.S.  
Her name is Yukari Takeba.

The second figure was a male with a shaved head and a goatee. Also a student, he wears a black student uniform, outfitted with black button shirt and pants. Underneath the uniform is a purple collar shirt. His signature piece of clothing is the cap that he wears and he too, wears a S.E.E.S. armband.  
His name is Junpei Iori.

Both of them got up in a sitting position.

"...Yuka-tan?" Junpei called out.

"...Is that, Junpei?" Yukari answered back.

Both of them got up and walked towards each other.

"Ow, my head hurts. I wonder if anyone got the license plate of that truck." Junpei joked.

"Ngh, I don't think anybody hit us on our heads." said Yukari.

"...Where are we anyway?"

Yukari pondered on Junpei's words, so she looked around.

"Beats me... It looks familiar though."

They both looked around. They could see and hear masses of people talking and conversing with each other. However, what had caught their attention was six other figures lying spread-eagled or otherwise around the area they were standing.

There was a red-haired lady, about the age of a senior, who wore a white blouse with a red bow-tie similar to Yukari's. She had a short black skirt, and knee-high boots with high heels. Again, she also has a S.E.E.S. armband on her left arm.  
Her name is Mitsuru Kirijo

The next person was a silver-haired male, about the same age as Mitsuru. He wore a red vest over a white dress shirt with a tie. He also wore leather gloves. His pants and shoes are the same as Junpei's, if not slightly larger. Also, he has the armband.  
His name is Akihiko Sanada

There was also a teal-green haired girl, about the same age as Yukari, but slightly younger as well. She wore a black school uniform, which consists of a black long sleeved shirt, short black skirt, thigh-high white socks, and black leather shoes. Underneath the uniform shirt was a turquoise turtleneck shirt. She wears the red armband on her left arm.  
Her name is Fuuka Yamagishi.

Beside her was a blonde girl with some weird headphone. In actuality, she is a humanoid. Her body design is made up of a white body base, and some gold armor. She bears the S.E.E.S. armband on her left arm as well.  
Her name is Aigis.

There was also a young elementary school boy with light brown hair. His uniform sweater is a smaller version of Junpei's, but he wears an orange hoodie underneath it. He wears a black pair of shorts, pair of white socks, and white shoes. The red armband is on his left arm, too.  
His name is Ken Amada.

Finally, there was a white Shiba-Inu dog. He wears a strange collar design with wings on its back, and he wears a miniature white T-shirt. The S.E.E.S. armband is on his left arm.  
He is named Koromaru.

Yukari gasped at the sight of familiar friends, and Junpei was equally as shocked.

"What are they...what is going on here?" Junpei asked out of complete shock.

Without another word, Yukari ran over to Mitsuru to help her out. "Mitsuru-senpai!" she yelled out.

"Ungh...Yukari?" Mitsuru spoke out.

"Take it easy there Mitsuru-senpai, you're just getting up." Yukari aided the senior up to her feet.

"Heh, I'm not your senior anymore, Yukari, don't you remember that?" Mitsuru joked, as she was a university student at this point.

"It's a habit." smiled Yukari. "Are you able to stand on your own?"

"I think I'm able to, thank you for your help Yukari."

"Akihiko-senpai!" Junpei ran over to the white-haired senior.

"...Junpei?" Still struggling, Akihiko mumbled.

"Hold up, I gotcha." Junpei grabbed Akihiko's arm and pulled it over his back. With all his effort, Junpei brought him up to standing position.

"GOD, HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH?" Junpei cried out, as it was a challenge itself to lift up his fellow student and friend.

"I'm not THAT heavy! You just need to train more."

"Whatever. Can you stand?"

"Yeah, I think I'm good to go." Akihiko said, getting his arm off Junpei's back. "Ken! Koromaru!"

With Junpei, Akihiko struggled to get over to where the child and puppy lay.

"ungh, Sanada-san?" Ken said as he was trying to get up himself, but to no avail. "Hmmnn," Koromaru whimpered as just woke up as well. With his strength partially returned, Akihiko helped the boy up in a sitting position, while Junpei tried to get Koromaru up on his feet. Turns out he didn't really need any help.

"Heh, strong as ever, huh Koro-chan?" Junpei could only revel at the strength the Shiba-Inu had.

"Aigis! Fuuka!" Yukari and Mitsuru went to where the two lay

"Yukari-san?" They both called out as they started to regain consciousness

"Hold it, we got you both." Yukari helped up Aigis, and Mitsuru helped up Fuuka.

After everyone was all conscious and accounted for, there was a small moment of silence. Until Junpei spoke out.

"Soooo...Anybody got any sort of idea where the hell we are?" he said. Fuuka replied, "I'm not quite sure myself. All of these locales seems so unfamiliar to me."

"Let me ask someone," said Ken.

"Excuse me, sir, can you please hel-," Ken tried to ask a nearby man, but when he reached out to grab his hand, Ken's own hand just phased through the man.

"What the...did you all just see what I just see? Ken's freaking hand just passed through someone!" Junpei was starting to get freaked out. "You don't think we're...ghosts aren't we?"

"Cut the crap, Stupei, if we were dead, we would've obviously known about it and end up somewhere else, not a city." Yukari said, with a bit of fear in her voice. "Mitsuru-senpai, is this another one of the Kirijo Group's 'experiments?'"

"Now that I think about it, no. Nothing on record tells about something like this. This is clearly something that's out of my knowledge."

"Aigis, do you know where we are?" The pink-clad student asked the android

"Negative, my information servers are cut off as of this moment. I am afraid that I am of no help."

"Well, we're just gonna have to go around the place until we've figured out where exactly where we are." Akihiko said. All eight of them nodded in agreement.

"I probably should've mentioned this earlier, but why are we dressed in our Gekkoukan uniforms?" asked Yukari.

"We're stuck in the middle of who-knows-where, and you can complain about are clothes? Geez Yuka-tan, I knew you were an apparel nut, but this is just...wow," Junpei replied in disbelief.

"Well, pardon me for making some sort of statement. I just find it weird, that's all...Huh?" Yukari felt something on her left arm. She grabbed her armband. On the underside, she saw a pin with a weird skull-like design. Everyone else grabbed their armbands to take a look (Koro-chan flipped his until the side with the pin on it was facing him). "That's rather odd, since when were these pins attached to our armbands?" Mitsuru questioned.

Fuuka brought up her right hand to attempt to touched it, and Mitsuru saw her at the corner of her eye, "Yamagishi, don't! We don't know if-" But she was too late. As soon as Fuuka touched it, she got an abrupt headache. "Gah!"

"FUUKA!" Everyone shouted (Koromaru barked).

Everything around Fuuka started to turn blue. She then started to hear voices in her head. "Huh? Voices?" The voices around her dimmed down, and she started hearing things from specific amounts of people. She heard things like: preparations for a party, what to shop, gossip, etc. She touched the pin again, and everyone started talking again.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you all." Fuuka apologized.

"That's not really something to apologize for Fuuka-tan, but what just happened?" Junpei askd her.

"I think I read peoples minds."

"Wait, we can read minds? AWESOME, LET ME TRY!" Junpei proceeded to touch his pin. He heard peoples thoughts, but for some reason he wasn't able to read the minds of the S.E.E.S. members.

"Awwwww," Junpei touched his pin again, "seems like I can't read you guys' thoughts."

"Hmmm, interesting. The most probable conclusion would be that these pins protect us from people who want to abuse the power." Mitsuru concluded.

"Good try Junpei." Akihiko patted him on the back.

"I bet you wanted to get into Takeba-san's head." Ken jeered. Koromaru chuckled.

"Oh Ken, you know me all too well."

"Remind me to give you some payback later, Junpei." Yukari threatened, with a tick mark appearing on her head.

_BI-BI-BI-BI-BI-BI-BI..._

"Huh? Whose cell is-," all of the sudden, everyone (minus Koromaru) had a cell phone ringtone ring from their pockets. Junpei was the first one to take his out.

"Wait, this isn't my phone..." The phone of question was a Red Sony Xperia Play 2 phone. As the screen appeared, there was an icon said, "Reach 109, you have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. -The Reapers." Junpei read out.

Yukari pulled out her phone, a pink skinned Sony Ericsson W62S. Mitsuru's was a black Sony Ericsson Bravia S004. Akihiko's was a white Sony Ericsson Bravia U1, Fuuka had a teal W62S, Aigis had a yellow S004, and Ken had a yellow Sony Xperia X8. Koromaru had an Xperia X10 attached to the front left of his collar.

All of which had the same message.

"Face erasure...what does that mean?" Ken asked. "AH!"

The group felt a hot stinging sensation on their right hands. Akihiko looked at his right hand. There was a countdown timer.

_59:57_

_59:56_

_59:55_

and still ticking.

"The clock's ticking, and if what the message state is true, then we have no time to waste!" Mitsuru stated.

"One problem Mitsuru, we don't know what this 109 is though." Akihiko mentioned to her.

"109? That sounds extremely familiar." Yukari pondered.

"INCOMING! Enemy presence detected!" Aigis alerted the group.

From out of nowhere, 5 weirdly designed symbols flown out of nowhere. Next thing they know, there were frog creatures came out of these symbols.

"There are five enemies!" Fuuka yelled to the group.

"What kind of monstrosities are these?" Mitsuru said in shock.

"Well whatever these are, they're gonna go down!" Junpei charged at one of the frogs, shouting a battle cry as he does so.

"JUNPEI!" Akihiko called out, "HOLD UP, STOP!"

"HAAAAARRRRGH!" Junpei reared up his fist as he runs, preparing for a sprinting punch. "I GOTCHA!" But as he punched, his fist phased through the frog. In a split second, the frog jumped up, and kicked both its feet on Junpei's chest. Junpei flew back a good few yards across the street.

"IORI!"  
"JUNPEI!"  
"JUNPEI-KUN!"  
"IORI-SAN!"  
"RUFF!"

"STUPEI, YOU IDIOT. HAVEN'T YOU LEARNED ANYTHING?" Yukari shouted as she ran over to where he ended up.

Junpei coughed in pain. "Ow. Heh, just like old times huh?"

"You stupid idiot! What were you trying to do, throw your life away? You know we can't summon our Personas anymore!"

"It's alright, I can still stand!" Junpei got up to his feet.

Blow after blow, the "frogs" attacked relentlessly. All the group could do was dodge their attacks.

"Damn it all! We're powerless against these guys. All we can do is dodge. If only I still had my Persona..." Akihiko said under his breath.

One of the frogs was about to get the jump on Amada, "KEN, LOOK OUT!" The senior managed to get the elementary school child out of dodge. "You better watch your back out there, Shinji would never forgive me if anything happened to you." Akihiko told the junior, "Sorry Sanada-san, I'll be more careful."

Aigis, Fuuka, and Mitsuru had no such luck as well. "Grrr, if Junpei-san wasn't able to land a dead-on hit to one of these things, then my weapons won't have that much effect either. This is useless." Aigis muttered in frustration.

"Grrr...RUFF,"

"Huh? What are you saying Koro-chan?" Aigis asked the Shiba-Inu.

"RUFF RUFF!" Koromaru replied back.

"He said follow me!" Aigis called to the group.

"It's our only option. Everyone, follow Koromaru!" Mitsuru ordered.

"Roger!" Fuuka said.

Everyone ran in the direction where Koromaru was headed. Away from the hot zone.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in a nearby building..._

Two figures hide in the shadows.

"Hmmm, we got ourselves some fresh meat. What do you say we play with these ones?" A female voice spoke.

_PIPIPIPIPI..._

"Hold up a sec," Then came a male's voice, he answered his cell phone, "Yeah boss? Mm-hm? I see, got it." He closed his cell. "It seems this new group is a special case. Our orders are to restrain ourselves from erasing these guys. They have a higher purpose later on."

"Awww, that's not much fun. What's the point of being Reapers if we can't enforce erasure on people?"

"Don't worry about it, there'll always be another batch... You wanna play a game?"

The female sighed, "What game is it this time?"

"Which two do you think will make the first pact? Plus, place a bet, it's not fun without any bets."

"Hmmm, 1000 yen to that baseball capped guy and the hunky white-haired dude."

"alright, 1000 yen to that pink-shirted brunette and that red-haired beauty."

Their eyes followed the group as they went in the direction of the subway station.

* * *

"gasp, gasp, gasp."

Everyone felt tired out as they managed to get away from the "Frogs from Hell" as Junpei would dub it.

"OOHHH MY GAWD!" Junpei cried out in relief as he fell down on the floor.

"He saved our lives yet again. Koro-chan! Where are you?" Fuuka called.

The group looked around, and they saw the puppy kneeling down in front of a bronze statue of a dog. They walked over to where Koromaru was kneeling.

"The Statue of Hachiko," it read on the plaque.

"Hachiko?" Yukari pondered, "but then that must mean..."

"We must be in Shibuya." Mitsuru finished for her. "This is an unexpected turn of events."

"So Koromaru led us to the statue of another puppy with the same experience as him. Koro-chan probably wanted to see this with his own eyes." Junpei said. Koromaru whimpered.

"She was brave, and had an unyielding loyalty to her master. Just like you. She's with her master now, and you have a family in us. We're grateful for your help Koro-chan." Fuuka said to the dog. The Shiba-Inu went and licked Fuuka's face. Everyone else smiled at the scene.

After the moment of silence, it was now the time to deal with business.

"Now the question still stands; why the hell are we in Shibuya?" Akihiko brings up.

"Considering all of us are brought together again, the most logical choice would have to be that this has to be related to...Minato," Mitsuru minorly hesitated on that last word. It's been two years, and they've already dealt with the death of their battle leader, Minato Arisato. Still, it was a little hurtful to be reminded of the past.

Yukari broke the silence, "It's stupid of us to keep thinking about him like this. We've already moved on, haven't we already accepted that fact?"

"Yeah, he wouldn't want us to be beat up about something in the past." Junpei agreed.

"But if it's related to Minato-kun, then wouldn't that mean Nyx has a part in this as well?" Fuuka added.

"Even so, that won't be enough to stop us." Akihiko said with determination.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Heh, I wonder if Aragaki-san and Arisato-san could see us now." Ken asked. "Bark!" Koromaru barked. "Koro says, "I think they'd be proud of us. They sacrificed their lives for the benefit of ours. If it hadn't been for them, we wouldn't have stopped Nyx in the first place. We're proud of them, and they're proud of us." Aigis translated.

"Minato, Shinjiro-senpai, watch over us, one last time." Yukari prayed. Everyone bowed down their heads in respect.

Fuuka raised up her right hand. "Everyone!"

_35:51_

_35:50_

"We've used up enough time, we must head to the 109. The most probable conclusion would have to be the 109 building. It's just west from the Scramble Crossing, which we were just in. Follow me." Mitsuru commanded.

As everyone walked away from the statue, Yukari and Aigis stayed behind. "Take care of us Minato-san. You too, Aragaki-senpai." They both said. Then they went on to catch up with the rest of the S.E.E.S. group.

The new adventure awaits...

* * *

_Elsewhere, in an alleyway filled with graffiti..._

A white haired boy, just about 16, with a white short-sleeved button shirt. grey jeans, and white shoes, was standing over another figure, who was lying in a face-down position.

This other figure had orange, spiky hair, and wore blue headphones. He had an mp3 player around his neck. He wore a sleeveless, dark blue with an indigo stripe sweater with a funnel collar, white shorts with a loose-fitting belt, and shoes which matched the design of his sweater.

"Wake up, Neku. It's time to heed your calling once again." The white haired boy told the other boy named Neku.

"...nngh...Joshua?"

* * *

**A/N: Here lies the end of the chapter. A little note, I wanted to get this chapter in a week ago, but I let other stuff cloud my priorities. Being as such, I'll be on a little trip to Vancouver. So the next chapter won't be up in a few weeks. TERRIBLY SORRY. But in any case...**

**Reviews please.**


	2. Chapter 2: The start of Neku's Journey

**Hello people, I've returned from my trip. Plus, I thank the people who are at least viewing this story. Special mentions to No-Story, Rai the Rainbow Wing, judaiXasuka12hk, Nierx, Demons ANarchy, KanbaraGirl77, and Allie X 'I for reviewing/favouriting/following this story. It means a lot to me.**

**Without further ado, the story. I'll try to meet the expectations of the public.**

**Reviews/Critiques are much appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Persona series or TWEWY.**

**Enjoy!**

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_Chapter 2: The Start of Neku's Journey_

* * *

"Wake up Neku, it's time for you to heed your calling..."

"...Ngh...Joshua?" The boy known as Neku started to wake up. He opened his eyes, and standing right in front of him was the white haired boy named Joshua. With all his effort, Neku stood up to his feet.

"...Ow, what happened? Why are you here? And what's this about heeding my calling?" Neku asked the white haired boy.

"Questions, questions, you ask all these questions expecting the answer to those questions to appear right in front of you." Joshua replied as he paced around Neku.

"Cryptic bastard..." Neku muttered under his breath.

"I heard that. Being Composer has its benefits you know." Joshua smirked.

"And that's one of the reasons I still don't forgive you for what you did." Neku growled back.

Joshua then sighed, "You're not gonna let that one go, are you? Alright, calm down. Just follow me." Joshua started to walk deeper into the graffiti-filled alleyway.

"...Where are you leading me to?" Neku asked as he followed Joshua.

"You'll see." The white-haired boy teased.

"Tch...freaking teaser," The spiky-haired boy said in arrogance.

After a few minutes and a number of turns here and there, the two finally came up to a mysterious, ethereal door. Said door was coloured blue, and it gave off a pulsating light-blue light. Neku jumped back in surprise.

"Whoa! I've been around Shibuya a lot of times, but I've never seen that there before... What is this?" The shocked teen asked.

"The start of a new Journey. Your 'calling' as I would put it," Joshua answered.

"God, you and your cryptic messages," Neku, still frustrated at the lack of straight answers that his so-called "friend" was giving.

"It's time for me to answer at least one of your questions. To put it short, you're in The Reapers Game again," Joshua said.

"Hmph, figures. I had a hunch that this wasn't over..." said Neku, with no hints of surprise nor shock in his voice.

"Ah but here's the catch; I wasn't the one who sent you back in the UG this time, and neither the Reapers did so as well," The silky-white haired boy added.

"Wait... what?" Now the surprise came in, "You DIDN'T send me to the UnderGround this time? But who else could have besides you and the Reapers?" said the now-shocked Neku.

"...Go through the door, and you should find your answers," Joshua replied back.

"Oh yeah, you're gonna need to sign this first, it's important," As Joshua held out his left hand, a black folder materialized out of thin air and was spinning on its tip. It then opened up to reveal a white piece of paper, a contract of sorts. The only rule specified was one large sentence stating, "I chooseth this fate of my own free will." A space was provided for a signature. A pen floated towards Neku from the contract. "Ooooookay then," The orange-haired boy took the pen, caught the contract, observed the rule one more time, and signed his name as neatly as he could on the space provided.

"Neku Sakuraba."

Once Neku finished the signature, the contract flashed a blue light, and then it disappeared from his hands. "All right, you're good to go. Just so you know though, I was only asked to lead you here, even I don't know what lies beyond that door. Good luck,"

"Geez, we could at least forge a pact first," Neku offered his opinion. "Great idea, but only you are allowed through that door."

Neku stared at the door, fixating at the eminence and aura it was giving out with every pulsating glow. Neku reached out his hand to touch the door. "Hmm, velvet," he examined. With a small push, the door opened. In an instant, Neku started to feel light-headed. "Whoa..." he brought up his right hand up to his forehead and clutched it. However, as he took his first step inside, there was no floor past the door, so he fell into this abyss.

"WHOAWHAAHHHHHH!" Neku began free-falling, and the bottom was nowhere in sight.

"JOSHUA, YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" Neku desperately called out to Joshua, but he remembered that the silver haired boy didn't go through the door with him, so it was useless to shout it out.

After a few seconds of falling, the wind that was blowing Neku's hair as he was falling started to die down. He was slowly decelerating towards the ground. As his speed started slowing down, an unknown force was bring Neku up to a sitting position. Finally, when the speed stopped, Neku found himself sitting in a uniquely designed chair. A room had materialized in front of Neku's eyes. It practically looked like the interior of an elevator, only except more bizarre. In the middle of the room was a circular table with a vase of flowers, and the contract he had recently signed on his side on the table. There was an old man with the most craziest noses you've ever seen, as it was bizarrely long, sitting down on the other side of the table. Beside him was a beautiful woman with silver hair that reached just below her shoulders, yellow eyes, and a blue coloured costume which appears to be something like a flight attendant. On the entrance gate, or what he thought was an entrance gate, there was a giant clock with its arms spinning continuously. Both left and right sides of the "room" had 4 closed wooden doors each, some covered with curtains, some partially, and some not.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear young man," the crazy old man spoke, "My name is Igor, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance. The woman beside me is Margaret, my assistant," he motioned to the woman on his left side. "It is a pleasure to meet you," she greeted. Neku did a small wave to their direction, as he had no words to speak out at this moment. "This is a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter," The long-nosed man explained.

"But I came in through a door just not too long ago. How is this a dream, when I physically know that I entered this room? And why wasn't Joshua able to come in through the door?" the confused teenager asked them.

"Ah yes, about that. Sorry about that fall a little earlier. That was a representation of you falling to your inner subconscious. Time has no meaning in the Velvet room. Once you step through the Velvet Door, time will be rendered inactive until you exit. Only those who have signed a contract, are enabled to enter this room," Igor explained.

"Ah, that clears things up, sort of... Why have I been called here?" Neku asked the duo, still confused about his calling.

"Fate has returned to hanging on the balance of life and death. A new threat has arisen, and the land known as Shibuya has become the destined battlefield. You have been chosen to be the Wild Card's next wielder. To decide the fate of the world." Margaret answered.

"That doesn't help me at all, why am I really here. And what is this Wild Card?" The still-confused Neku asks.

"I believe that you should take a look at your contract once more," As Igor waved his hand, the contract flipped open. Nothing about the contract had changed, it still had that one rule:

_"I chooseth this fate of my own free will."_

"What you do with your future as of this moment, is only of your choice. Our purpose is to accompany you in your choices, nothing more. Although that doesn't mean we can't aid you on your journey," Igor had explained.

"The Wild Card is an ability to wield multiple Personas. A Persona is a manifestation of your personality, a physical form of your inner self," Margaret explained. "If I'm not mistaken, you used to be stoic and disconnected from the world, but over the course of your "Reaper's Game," you've begun to place your trust in others, and formed bonds with friends."

_What are they, mind readers or something?_ Neku thought, "yeah, I was, and now for some reason I've come back into the game and I have no idea why."

"Hmmm, how very intriguing," the long-nosed man pondered on something.

"Huh, what's going on?" Neku was still trying to take in all the information.

"You are an acquaintance of Minato Arisato, correct?"

That name took Neku aback.

"Minato Arisato? No way, that's not possible. He's dead," a feeling of unbelief crept in his voice.

* * *

**Flashback  
Neku POV**

_April 9th, 1998  
__Neku age: 6_

_"Neku, hurry up! It's time for your first day of school!" I heard my mom shout. I grabbed the pillow I was leaning my head on and brought it over my head to block out other sounds. Like all other mothers, she came out of my room and shook me awake. Reluctantly, I got up, walked to the washroom and looked at myself in the mirror; my hair was a total mess, with miniature strands sticking out from all directions. Fortunately, my mother was a part-time stylist at some local hair salon, so she styled my hair. She put gel on her hands, and styled my hair in a spiky manner, but not crazy like Cloud Strife from FFVII, instead the spikes were flowing downwards so it looked smoothed. I changed into a periwinkle blue T-shirt, white cargo shorts, and indigo sneakers. With that, I put on my signature Sony MDR-V250 headphones over my neck, finished up breakfast, and walked to the car._

_It was a normal, early-spring, day. I was starting out grade school in Shibuya Elementary school, and it was boring to say the least. Everyone at school got along with others quite easily. Of course, I never took effort into making friends or whatever at the time. I thought it was a chore, and nobody understood me._

_"Tch, I'll never get people, and I probably never will," was my usual everyday response. I don't try to get to know people, and people just stay away from me. I liked that rule and I wanted it to stay that way. That was how I went around my first day of school. _

_Only until one person broke that rule..._

_Over the course of the next few days, I've caught the eye of a certain person. On the Friday of the first week of school, that boy grew the courage to talk to me, at lunch. The boy came over to my table and started conversation. "Hi, how are you today?" He said in a polite manner, almost too polite for his age. I looked up from my lunch and looked at him directly in the face._

_The boy was about the same age and height as me. He had grey eyes, and had blue hair. His hair was styled so that his front bangs would covered his right eye. He wore Audio-Technica ATH-EM700 GM headphones over his neck. His apparel consists of a blue and white T-shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers._

_At first glance, I wanted to make him go away, so I answered negatively. "Nothing that would interest you," I replied in an jerk-ish sort of way. A scowl appeared in the boys face, "Well that was pretty rude of you. I only started talking to you and you instantly try to make me scram," he retorted. "Well maybe I just like being alone!" I raised my voice, but not so loudly to avoid causing attention. "Why do you want to be alone?" the boy asked me. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words were able to come out. "Maybe it's because... because no one understands me," I looked down to my lap. "Maybe if you let people in, people will start to," I looked at him, bewildered at first because he was the first person to ever engage in conversation with me. "What's your name?" he asked me. I paused for a moment, then I muttered out, "Neku Sakuraba." The boy smiled back, "It's nice to meet you, Sakuraba-kun. My name is Minato Arisato, but you can just call me by my first name Minato." He held out his hand. I reluctantly raised my hand and took his into mine and shook it.  
_

_Minato Arisato... That was the day when I first opened up to someone, and his name was a name that I was bound to remember in the long run..._

_Over the course of the next few weeks, Minato always comes up to me to start on conversation, which I usually don't really carry along with because I suck at conversations. Examples of such starters would include the traditional "hey how you doing?" or the "nice weather we're having?" sort of thing. Sometimes he'd ask more unorthodox questions like "you starting to make more friends?" and "was I really your first friend?" Eventually I just got ticked off as he was bombarding me with such meaningless questions. "Okay STOP IT. I know you're curious about me Minato-kun, but I am REALLY ticked off with all these questions your asking me!" I needed to go home to sort my head out. "I'll see you tomorrow." With that I walked away from the school grounds._

_I was heading home through the Cat Street path. As soon as I passed WildKat however, there were a group of thugs, two guys that surrounded me, and they were taller than me by about a head. "Hey, you lost kid?" the first one asked me. Sure I felt fear, but I wasn't gonna show it or else they would get an even higher hand over me, so I tried to play it cool. "No, I'm just taking a shortcut," I replied coolly, hoping that it would back them off; well wasn't I wrong. "Hmph, ballsy kid. But you gotta know that this is our section of turf. Anyone gets in here, and they're sure as hell not likely to come out without a major amount of bruises. Especially when it comes to kids like you." They started to converge on me. My eyeballs were on the move, making sure to keep an eye on all of them. The option to run away was definitely closed at this point. "Schools in kid, time to learn 'Getting your Ass Kicked 101,'" The thug who said that started to rush me, but I instinctively dodge out of the way. The guy tripped onto the floor face-first, maybe because I tripped him. "Heh, slippery little piece of crap aren't you? Boys, grab him!" As one of the guys tried to grab my arms, I spun around to the right, missing his arms by just an inch. Then I did a reverse roundhouse kick on his face. "OW!" I definitely made him stumble a bit, I guess those private martial arts classes paid off a bit. Even so, I was still out of my league. I got careless as the first thug grabbed me from the back. "Augh, get off of me!" I shouted as I struggled to get out of the attackers grip. "Heh, you asked for it," he then threw me at a wall, as I made contact I felt the air get knocked out of my lungs. "Oof." The first thug came up and grabbed me by the shirt, and lifted me up against the wall. "Any last words?" he said. I closed my eyes, awaiting the punch that was most likely gonna send me to the hospital or an early grave._

_"AUGH!" I heard one of the thugs get hit. "What the...?" the one holding me turned around behind them as I opened my eyes. The guy who I kicked in the face was kneeling down on the floor clutching his stomach. Standing over him..._

_Was none other than Minato Arisato himself, holding a bokken in his right hand. "He's not gonna die today, I won't let you." He took up a kendo stance, ready to fight. In that moment when the guy handling me was distracted, I kicked out both my legs to get him to let go. "Ok, let's wrap this up." Both me and Minato charged at the last guy. Blow after blow was struck, me retaliating with my punches and kicks, and Minato expertly wielding his bokken. In the end of the scrap, the two guys got were unable to move because of the blows they've been dealt. Minato and I were just reaching our peak. Outside the alley, the police came in and what they saw was two sweat covered boys and two beaten up, incapacitated men. I wondered who it was that alerted the police. Sure enough, as I looked around, I saw a middle-aged man in front of the WildKat store bring a phone away from his ear. He waved back to me, and I did a small wave motion back at him, as a sign of my thanks._

_"You boys must be tired, want a ride home?"_

_We both took a ride on the police car on a trip back to my place. Of course, my mother was shocked when she saw me all bruised at the door. She thanked the officers for escorting me home, and as she closed the door, she hugged both me and Minato. "Oh thank God that you're safe! I was so worried about you! You scared me beyond reason young man!" she scolded me. "And who are you?" she directed her attention to Minato. "I'm Minato Arisato, but you can just call me by my first name Minato. I saw your son being assaulted by two thugs, so I tried to help. I took kendo lessons so I could hold out on my own." Minato introduced himself. "Well you're either brave, or just reckless. In any case, I thank you in the bottom of my heart for saving my son," she came up and hugged Minato as well. "We need to tell your parents that you're safe as well Minato-kun." Minato gave his home number to my mom, and she contacted his parents. I turned to him, "hey, thanks for saving my life. Sorry for being such a jerk to you." I brought out my hand, and Minato shook it with no hesitations. "No problem," he said with a smile._

_Our friendship lasted for the rest of the year. We talked, laughed, shared our problems, and formed a bond that was most likely never gonna break, ever._

_It was only fitting to have that so short-lived..._

_In the spring holidays before school started for Grade 2, Minato and I met up at Yoyogi Park. He told me that he was moving back to Tatsumi Port Island, his birth home. It was sad that I wasn't gonna see him for a while after this. So I left him my address so that we could keep in touch. School would be lonely without my best and only friend._

_It was only about to get even lonelier..._

_I never got any letters from Minato over the course of the few months after school started. I sent him a letter asking what was going on, "Hey, what's going on? I haven't gotten any letters from you for a long time. A few days later, I got a letter, but I did not expect who had sent it to me. The letter was sent from a man by the name of "Yagami." I showed the letter to my mom, but as we read it..._

_"Dear Mr. Sakuraba, with all my condolences, this was a very painful letter to write. I am Soichiro Yagami, of the Port Island Police force. It pains me to write it out but, the Arisato family that was supposed to receive your letter had been deceased for about a few months now, in the result of a car crash. Mr. and Mrs. Arisato were found dead in the driver and passenger seats, but the young one was nowhere to be found and is still missing to this day. We could only assume the worse... I'm truly sorry. I give my best regards to you._

_Sincerely,  
Soichiro Yagami,  
Port Island Police Department."_

_I was overcome with shock and grief. Me and my mom were brought to tears. Me the most, as I had been really close to Minato. He was the only person that understood me. Without him, well, I had no one but my mom left._

_From then until now, my personality just went a major downhill. I started growing more stoic, and even more distrusting of people. It stayed like that until I was entered into the Reapers Game, where I met Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and Joshua._

_And the rest is history..._

* * *

**Third Person POV.**

_Back in the Velvet Room._

Revisiting those memories brought back some bad memories for Neku. He was driven to tears yet again. "_It's been 10 years since that day..."_ he thought.

"I'm terribly sorry if I brought back some bad memories," Igor attempted at apologizing to the orange haired boy.

"No, it's alright, I'm better now. I think he'd be proud of me because I gained, no, I've renewed my outlook on life. You said he was your previous guest? How? I thought he was dead," Neku replied.

Igor proceeded to tell the story of the events that had happened two years ago. When Minato first came into the Velvet Room, the bonds he made with his friends from school, especially a group known as S.E.E.S. which were his partners as he did combat with these creatures called Shadows in a labyrinth of evil named Tartarus. Also, he told him about the intriguing power he had to wield the power of the Universe, and how he had used that power to save the world from an entity called Nyx, sacrificing himself from the process.

"Wow, it seems we both had a hand in saving our worlds. Heh, if only I could see you now." Neku said with a bright smile, a smile that he would rarely ever give out.

"It seems our time here is nearly over. I shall give you this first, to give you a leverage over wielding the power of the Wild Card." As the long-nosed man snapped his fingers, a pouch appeared in thin air, and it floated its way over to Neku. He took hold of the pouch, and as he opened it, he saw two pins, a blank one and another one with an odd figure with a giant string instrument on its back. _"Psyches..."_ Neku thought as he picked up the pin with the figure. "That pin you see with the figure on it, that is 'Orpheus," Master Arisato's initial Persona. May it guide you on your journey," Igor explained. "Along your journey, you will be granted the ability to discover new Personas. We will aid you in that part," Margaret said. Neku nodded in understanding as he put the pin back in the pouch and strapped the pouch on his belt. "Before you leave, you will need this. The next time you visit us, will be of your own volition."

Igor brought out his hand, as he opened it, some sort of key was hovering on top of his palm. The key was of an indigo colour, and slightly bigger than your average key. Plus, the light it was emanating was the same colour as the door. As Joshua stretched out his arm towards Neku with palm still upward, the key started to float towards the orange-haired boy. When Neku tried to grab it however, the key had vanished, and the light it had emanated split up into visible light-blue particles. The particles proceeded to fly towards Neku's head, and they disappeared once they reached their destination. As all the particles flew inside Neku's head and flow right into his mind, The spiky-haired boy's head gave one last pulse of light.

"Time marches on in your world. Any questions you may still have will be answered in another time. There will be trials placed on your journey, but remember: Bonds of friendship are the true power. Until we meet again." As soon as Igor finishes his message, Neku is lifted off his chair and is sent soaring upwards. Back to reality.

* * *

_Alleyway_

As Neku returned, he was knocked back as if someone pushed him off his feet. He found himself lying face-up on the floor, with Joshua standing above him.

"Well, you certainly took your time," Joshua said smugly.

"Wait a minute, time is supposed to halt when I'm in the Velvet Room," Neku said to Joshua. "How come... oh wait a minute." He recalled the words that the white-haired boy told him, "Being Composer has its benefits."

"In any case, pact with me Joshua. If we're in the Reapers Game again, I'm gonna need a partner to fight off Noise," Neku told Joshua. "Alright, I accept."

As soon as those words left Joshua's mouth, an ethereal light surrounded the two, signifying the pact of partnership. After that, Neku's phone rang. "Hm?" The orange-haired boy reached into his pocket, and he held his phone. A different phone than the one that he used the last time he played the Game, this new phone was a blue Sony Ericsson W62S. Neku flipped open his phone, and it read, "Reach 109, fail and face erasure -The Reapers."

Neku felt a stinging sensation on his right hand. As he brought it up, he saw the timer going down

_29:58_

_29:57_

_29:56_

"Weird, I had an hour last time. Well, it's nice to see that some things don't change. Let's get going Joshua!" Neku and Joshua ran over to the direction of the 109 building, starting a new chapter in Neku's journey.

* * *

**YES, DONE THIS CHAPTER! This took a LOT longer than I thought it would, maybe because I was just putting this story off doing other useless things. In any case, I give my thanks to those who read this story, as it means a lot to me. I will try to see this through to the end. Just try to bear with me and I will try to get these chapters in as soon as I can**

**Reviews/Criticisms are welcome as always.**

**Until then, see you guys in the next chapter,  
Vince329.**

**To Demons Anarchy: Besides the flashback, I plan for a Minato appearance in the future. I have a few ideas for Ryoji, but I'm still thinking it over, it's not definite if he'll be in the story or not. Keep hoping though, and thanks for the kind words :).**


	3. Chapter 3: Pacts

**I'm back again with another chapter, the first one of the school year. I apologize to those who've been waiting eagerly for this chapter. I hope you all enjoy as a reward for sticking with me!**  
**Reviews/Criticisms/Critiques are as welcome as always**  
**Disclaimer: I don't own Persona or TWEWY... There's always wishing I did though**

* * *

_Chapter 3: Pacts_

* * *

"YAWWWNN, are we there yet?" the yawns and complaints of Junpei Iori were definitely not helping out the S.E.E.S. group as they continued their trek towards the 109 building.

"Your constant complaining's not get us anywhere fast Junpei. You might as well just bear with it," said Akihiko. Ever since the monster attack half an hour ago, the S.E.E.S. group have been on constant alert. Being that the shortest way to get to the 109 is through Scramble Crossing, even though that was the location they were last attacked, they decided to go that direction due to time constraints.

"Akihiko-sempai is right, Junpei-san. You're not lifting the mood by a significant amount, rather only making it worse," Aigis added. It seemed everybody was down in the dumps due to the fact that they don't have the ability to protect themselves.

"Heh, well I tried. I still haven't found a use for this pin," Junpei grabbed his armband to take a look at the mysterious pin. For safety reasons, he avoided touching the pin directly.

"Everyone stay alert, we're approaching the Scramble Crossing, stay alert," Mitsuru warned everyone. The group nodded in agreement. They slowly proceeded across the crossroad, ever alert for monster attacks. Surprising to them, there were no signs of attack. Neither Aigis nor Fuuka were able to detect any sort of enemy presence.

"Strange, the monsters were rampant the last time we were here. Now there's an air of emptiness around the area..." Fuuka analyzed. After a few good looks and double takes around the streets, only to see the figures of people walking the streets. In an instant, they started dashing towards the road that connects the Crossing to the 109. Akihiko was the fastest out of all of them, so he had a very drastic lead. But just as they were about to exit the intersection...

**_BAM_**

"Oof!" The boxer fell down to the floor after colliding with... well, nothing. Some invisible wall or force field was blocking the road.

"Sanada-san, are you okay?" Ken asked, crouching down towards the lying silver-haired senior. "Ngh, I'm fine Ken. Still hurt like a bitch though," Akihiko proceeded to rub the impact point on his head. "What the hell is this?" Yukari said as she touched the invisible wall, attempting to push it as well.

"raaaaAAAAHHH, IT WON'T FREAKING BUDGE!" Junpei tried to push it with all of his might, but to no avail as he fell down in exertion.

"So you seek a way to clear your obstacle," A mysterious voice rings the group's ears.

Koromaru was the first one to double-take towards the source of the voice, "RUFF!" The dog directed the groups attention to the source. Mysterious is pretty much the exact word you would use to describe this figure. The figure was a man wearing a red hoodie, with a black sleeveless t-shirt underneath, a cap under the hood, and black jeans. He also had a green camo bag slung around his shoulder. "Complete my task, and I will grant you passage... My terms: Purge the Darkness from this area."

"What are you?" The red-haired senior asked the strange man, battle stance at the ready.

"I don't get paid to chit-chat, play the Game." With that, the man disappeared in a wisp of red smoke.

"A... game?! YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME TO YOU!?" Junpei shouted, but he only shouted towards the air, it wasn't going to do any good.

"Uh, guys? The crowd's disappearing," Ken said as he pointed to the the masses of people, who one by one, are starting to disappear from their very eyes.

"LOOK!" Fuuka gasped as she redirected the group's attention as she pointed in a different direction. Everybody then looked to where she was pointing. To be quite frank, they were all very shocked at the sight they saw.

A dark mound had formed at the spot where Fuuka had pointed. It kept spreading, until a bright blue mask had come out. As the mask rose, so did two arms that had come from the dark spot. At that moment, more of the same dark mounds started to appear, growing in numbers, all the while surrounding the group as the numbers continue to multiply. In the end, sixteen of those monsters had appeared. In that moment, the group had known what they were up against, as they had experience with these monsters before.

"SHADOWS!" They all shouted.

* * *

_The road separating Dogenzaka and the 109  
_  
"C'mon Joshua, hurry up!" Neku called out as he ran across the road. He had a good start over his partner, almost as if he was in some sort of rush. Understandable, because the timer on his hand is near the 10 minute mark.

_12:48_

_12:47_

_12:46_

"Dammit, I gotta hurry up!" Neku thought in his mind. Running, running, and running, until eventually he and his partner finally arrived at the 109 building. Neku panted for air, "Finally made it..." However, the timer on his hand wasn't going away.

_11:05_

_11:04_

_11:03_

"What the hell, why isn't the timer gone?!" Neku was in total disbelief at this point. What was he missing? Has the Game been glitched somehow? "JOSHUA! Why the hell hasn't my timer stopped?!" Neku asked in a frantic manner. "I have no clue; this never happen before, not to my knowledge anyway." Joshua answered. Things were getting seriously weirder now. To make things even more unsettling, five red and black symbols started flying in from all directions. Frogs started popping out of those symbols, and converging towards the duo.

"Shit, Noise?! Now of all times?!" Neku was really losing his patience at this point. "Well, now would be a good time to check out this new psych. Ready Joshua?" The spiky-haired teen faced towards his partner, back to back. "Hmph, you know me," they both get ready into their battle stances. Joshua outstretched both his arms forward, while Neku opened his palm, the Orpheus pin laying there on his hand. "Hmmm, Orpheus huh? Minato Arisato's Persona..." He stared at the pin for at least a few more seconds. As he closed his palm, a blue mist started to surround Neku.

"Per...so...na!" As the spiky-haired teen tightens his grip on the pin, a shattering sound rang out in both Neku's and Joshua's ears. Out of Neku's body came a figure unlike anything Neku had seen up until now. The being that had appeared was identical to the image shown on the pin. The being had a humanoid appearance, well, as humanoid as it could get. Said figure had black skin, short blonde hair, and glowing red eyes. It was covered in turquoise-coloured armour, with literally a subwoofer on its abdomen. Other features include mechanical limbs, both pairs of arms and legs, mixed with metal and white leather. A more noticable feature is the giant lyre on its back.

The figure spoke, "Thou art I, and I am thou. I am Orpheus, Master of Strings. I shall protect you as I have protected my previous master." The subwoofer on the abdomen started screeching. Next thing Neku and Joshua knew, the "Noise" as Neku dubbed it, were starting to dissolve into black slime. Then, from the slime of the surrounding Noise, sprung out a weird-looking mask and two arms, both of which are holding daggers.  
"What the... things just keep getting weirder and weirder. Alright Orpheus, let's see what you got," Neku then outstretched his right arm towards one of the monsters, fingers outstretched. "Now! Bash it down!" In an instant, 'Orpheus' grabbed its lyre, and brought it down hard on one of the shadows, instantly killing it. "WHOO! NOW WE'RE TALKING!" Neku jeered.

Joshua was finding his battles to be somewhat of a difficulty. "Nngh! Why does it take so long to take you down!?" With every material he could bring down on the monsters, whether it be bike posts, cars, or even lasers, it wasn't as effective as Neku's powers. That doesn't mean he was able to kill them, it just takes a little while longer, much to Joshua's aggravation. One of the monsters tried to pull a sneak attack on the silver-haired Composer, Joshua knew it was coming though. "Sounds like you're having a bit of difficulty now, are you Joshua?" Neku shouted from a distance. "Well it's not like I have the luxury of a Persona to help me out at this moment. I'm just lucky enough to be able to kill these things!" Joshua shouted back as he now started firing down lasers from the sky. They did considerably more damage than whatever he was able to summon before. After roughly a minute of battling, which consisted of Neku continuously summoning Orpheus and Joshua sending down magical thunder lasers from Heaven, the five mysterious monsters were finally defeated. Neku defeated three of them, while Joshua killed two of them, slightly longer than his spiky-haired partner.

A few seconds after the battle, Neku felt a surge of power from within his soul. "I think I just leveled up," the orange-haired teen remarked. "Whoa, my head's all woozy," Neku started to clutch his head, and he started to stumble forward. Joshua caught him by the shoulder just as he started falling. "You alright?" he asked in a concerned manner, a change that brought Neku slightly off-guard. "I-I'm alright, just a minor headache. It'll go away. Funny, I never pegged you for the concerned type," Neku wondered at what might have caused this change in his once and somewhat still self-centered partner. "It's complicated," was all Joshua could say. Just as soon as Neku opened his mouth to speak to his partner, the duo could hear the screaming of multiple voices in the direction of the Scramble Crossing.

The voices they both heard all spoke one word: "SHADOWS!"

Both Neku and Joshua faced each other, and they nodded, acknowledging what they had to do next. Without a moment's hesitation, they dashed towards the source of the screaming. They were headed towards the Scramble Crossing.

It took them at least a minute or two to reach the crossroad. As they reached the crossroad, the duo saw eight other figures: seven people, six of which that looked like they were in their late-teens or seniors and a kid, and a dog. Neku realized that this was the group that the man Igor had discussed about; the friends that Minato had made before his sacrifice.

* * *

"This is not good!" Yukari yelled out in panic. As of this moment, the S.E.E.S. group was practically powerless at this point. They have no means of fighting back against the "Shadows."

Slowly, the Shadows slowly converged towards the group. The members brought up their balled-up fists to brace themselves for the worst that is to come. Their eyes darted around the area, ever alert for the first attacker.

"What do we do?!" Akihiko said in frustration. This time, the S.E.E.S. group were literally in deep trouble. They were almost certain that this was the end for them.

Until...

"FORM A PACT WITH EACH OTHER!" They heard a scream coming from the direction of their destination. The group turned their eyes towards the barrier. They saw an orange spiky-haired teen at around the same age as Yukari, if not slightly older than her. He wore blue headphones and had an mp3 player around his neck. He wore a sleeveless, dark blue with an indigo stripe sweater with a funnel collar, white shorts with a loose-fitting belt, and shoes which matched the design of his sweater. Beside him was a white haired boy, just about 16, with casual attire consisting of a white short-sleeved button shirt. grey jeans, and white shoes.

"Who are you?! What do you mean by pact?!" Aigis asked the stranger. "Don't ask questions! Get a partner and ask him or her to form a pact with you. JUST DO IT!" the teen shouted.

Heeding the words of the stranger, Mitsuru turned to her right. Yukari right beside her, the brunette asked the ruby-head heiress, "I don't know, this guy shows up just after we encountered the Shadow. Are you sure that we should trust him?" she asked. Mitsuru pondered on this for awhile, "I don't know, but it seems like we have no other options. We need to follow what he says. So Yukari, may I ask you to form a pact with me?" The redhead asked the brunette. Yukari responded by putting her left hand on the heiress' right shoulder, "Yeah!"

As soon as the word left Yukari's mouth, a blue light flashed from the ground where the two girls were standing. They closed their eyes and brought up their arms, shielding their eyes from the blinding light. They felt a surge of power, or at least in their case, a return of power filling themselves on the inside.

* * *

_Separate building_

"Pay up Uzuki," the strange man said, outstretching his hand awaiting his winnings. "Dammit, fine here you go Kariya," the pinkette, named Uzuki, retrieved 1000 yen from her wallet and handed it over to her partner, now named Kariya.

"Well, let's see what these guys got." Kariya said, observing the battlefield along with Uzuki.

* * *

As they both opened their eyes, they felt bewildered to say the least. "What did that do?" Yukari had asked. They looked all over their bodies, seeing if there was some significant change to their appearance. So far, no changes have been made to the physical appearance as of the moment...  
"Hmm? What's in my..." Mitsuru was unknowingly holding an object on her right hand. As she raised it, she saw that she was holding a silver pistol, gleaming in the reflection of the sun. She had a shocked expression, to say the least. "An Evoker?" The "Evoker" was unlike other guns, also to say the least. The red-headed heiress knew what to do with it, as a sign of renewed determination was found on her expression. With no hesitation, she brought up the Evoker up to her right temple, as if she were about to shoot herself. Much to the orange-haired stranger, she did exactly that.

"TO ME, ARTEMISIA!" Mitsuru pulled the trigger on the gun, literally shooting herself in the head in the process. Glass shards popped out of her head like an actual bullet was firing glass. From out of Mitsuru's body came her Persona Artemisia. The figure in question had a crimson peck mask on her pale, porcelain face, and she wore a flowing blue collar dress, clad with gold-and-black plated armour that had spikes on the shoulders and waist and spike-like designs streamlined across her shoulders and waist. Added to that are her dark-green high-heel boots with the golden heel rise protrusion, and of course, her signature whip.

"Let's hope my skills are still top-notch. Now Artemisia, MABUFUDYNE!" Mitsuru commanded her Persona, directing where she wanted to land her attack. Artemisia grabbed her whip and stretched it out, and as soon as she did, three huge ice blocks formed to where three of the Shadows were. As the blocks shattered, the shadows dissolved into nothingness, signifying their defeat.

Yukari also had an Evoker in her hands. "I'm guessing forming pacts with your partners give you powers," she said while staring at the gun, "Well, let's see if I still got it then. COME ISIS!" Instantly, Yukari placed both hands on the handle of the gun, and pointed it towards herself, more specifically her forehead. She pulled the trigger, and the same glass-shattering noise could be heard. Out of her body came out her Persona, named Isis. The Persona in question had one half of a body; it had no legs whatsoever. The face was white and it had horns sprouting from both sides of its head, and a large red jewel in between. The remaining body was a black, leathery-material upper body with lines outlining the body. Connected to the arms are large pieces of armor that was split in the middle. In the place of the arms are huge wings outlined in red, blue and gold.

Mitsuru had just got hit by one of the Shadows from behind. "AARGH!" She cried out in pain, "OW, they hit harder than they usually did." There was a big scar on the heiress' back, specifically three claw marks that went from her right shoulder to her lower-left waist. "Mitsuru-sempai, hang in there. ISIS, DIARAHAN!" The jewel shined red, and an ethereal aura surrounded the redhead. When the light from the healing spell had faded, Mitsuru's wounds were healed. "My apologies Takeba. I was careless," was the heiress' way of gratitude for the brunette's healing spell. "Now, let's get to work!" Mitsuru and Yukari charged at another shadow.

"Hey! Don't get the party started without me!" Akihiko yelled out to the two ladies which were starting to make work with killing the shadows. "Let's go Ken, pact with me!" He turned his attention to the elementary schoolboy. Ken nodded in response. The same light that had once surrounded the two girls now were surrounding the boxer and the child. Without a moment's hesitation, they ran off to another group of shadows, now-appeared Evokers at the ready.

"Alright, time to come back old friend. LET'S GO CAESAR!" Akihiko pointed the gun towards his head and shot. From out of his body arose his Persona, named Caesar. The figure had practically a royal figure, as it was dressed in pure white armour from head to waist. It also had a white cape which reached down to its waist. It wore black steel boots with a thin white stripe down the middle. It brandished a white sword on its right hand and a small version of the earth on its left. "ALRIGHT CAESAR, MAZIODYNE!" Caesar raised up his left hand, globe glowing, and three lightning bolts fell from the ground, frying three different Shadows into oblivion. "Alright, you see that Shinji!?"

"ARISE KALA-NEMI!" Ken brought his Evoker to his head in the same manner as Yukari, and shot himself in the forehead. Like everyone else, his Persona arose from his body. It was a hulking red and black figure filled from top down with armour; red, blocky armour on the upper body, and sharp black legs. The most intriguing thing are the arms. Attached on both sides of the main body are two spheres with orange dots surrounding them. The actual arms are actually attached to a ring like design that surrounds the whole upper body. It should be noted that this ring frame is not attached to the main body. "OK KALA-NEMI, MAMUDOON!" The ring frame on Kala-Nemi spun around once. Then a huge dark circle surrounded two enemies. As soon as the rings dispersed, the two unlucky shadows were instantly killed.

"Heh, we're missing out on all the fun. You got my back Koro-chan?" Junpei faced the Shiba-Inu. "RUFF!" was all the puppy could say in a response, but Junpei took that as a yes. A flash of bright light surrounded the two, and they too could feel a surge of power.

"Alright it's time I joined in on the fun. TRISMEGISTUS!" In a hero-like style, Junpei brought the gun to his temple and shot himself, then his Persona arose from his body. The figure had a more smoother design compared to everyone else. The Persona bore a bright red colour. The helmet had a shiny metal design, outlined in colours of silver, red and gold. It was shaped like an eagle, and inside the "mouth" was a red orb. There were three separate pairs of wings attached to the Persona, a pair on the rear of the helmet, one on each shoulder, and one on each leg. The wings on the shoulder were silver with gold outlines, while the wings on the legs were golden in colour. "Okay Trismegistus, use Blades of Fury!" The Persona zig-zagged around Junpei's field of view, and then it propelled itself forward. Behind it, invisible blades slashed two of the shadows, shredding them into pieces before dissolving into the ground! "WHOOO! DADDY LIKE!" Junpei cheered himself.

"AWHOOOOO!" Koromaru howled in the direction of the sky, and his collar glowed bright-blue. Out of Koromaru's figure arose the puppy's Persona. The Persona took the shape of a robotic, three headed dog. The armour surrounding the ethereal canine was a mixture of black and silver colours. The Persona resembled Cerberus, demon dog of the Underworld.

Koromaru growled at the last surviving shadow, then "Cerberus" howled in the air. A fireball exploded to where the last shadow stood, burning it alive in the process. The coast was clear.

All of the sudden, the remains of the Shadow's substance all merged into a giant form. A huge mask appeared out of the mound, and out came nine arms, each holding a dagger. It started advancing towards Aigis and Fuuka.

"Looks like this is our cue. Fuuka-san, I wish to engage a pact with you!" The android said to the teal-haired student. "Okay, you got it Aigis!" And with that, the final duo had been engulfed in a light. As it dispersed, they felt power well up inside them.

"JUNO, REVEAL TO ME WHAT NORMAL EYES COULD NOT!" Fuuka brought the Evoker to her right temple, and pulled the trigger. A barrier surrounded the teal-haired girl. From out of the barrier formed a female figure's upper body. The face was blank white except for five eye markings. It had flowing silver hair and a red head garment. The skin was black and it wore a red dress and red arm stockings. Behind the body figure were a pair of long black wings with three circle designs taking up a third of each wing each. "Juno, scan the enemy! Give me a second, this is going to take awhile" Juno gave out a pale light, signifying that it was making progress with the scanning.

"Roger, I'll provide covering fire! ATHENA!" Unlike everyone else, Aigis had no need for an Evoker to summon her Persona. The Persona had grey skin and smooth brown hair, covered by a golden helmet that looked like the ones from Ancient Greece. It wore a flowing white dress covered with a golden chest piece. As weaponry, the Persona had a lance, and a big shield connected by a levitating ring that revolved around the Persona.

"SUKUKAJA!" As the shield revolved around Athena, a green pillar of light rose from Aigis' feet, raising her agility in the process. The huge Shadow charged at Aigis, waving the knives rapidly in the android's direction. She was able to dodge all the strikes, thanks to the agility buff.

"I got it! It's weak against Strike attacks!" Fuuka notified Aigis. The blonde android nodded in response. "GODDESS SHIELD!" Aigis outstretched her left hand towards the Shadow. Athena's shield revolved around her body, then it floated out of orbit from the body and the shield part of the ring was in front of the lance. Athena "threw" the lance and shield combo towards the Shadow, and it literally sent the Shadow off its peripheral feet, dissolving in the process.

Everyone became tired from the energy-consuming battle. It took out a lot of their stamina as this was the first time in years since they last fought Shadows. "Why are the Shadows back?" Mitsuru rhetorically questioned the group. Everyone was bewildered at the least.

* * *

"Well, that was quite eventful. These guys won't pull their punches in the slightest." Uzuki remarked on the past battle.

"No thoughts on interfering with them right now. The boss wants to keep us on the down low until further notice." Kariya said.

"Fine," The pink-haired girl huffed as she left the area, leaving Kariya behind.

"Hmm, what significance does this group hold compared to the other contestants?" The orange-haired man thought to himself.

* * *

The barrier fell down, and the orange-haired boy along with his silver-haired partner walked through with bewildered expressions. The former showing more of the expression than the latter. They walked towards S.E.E.S.

"We thank you for letting us know about the pact system, but who are you two? And how did you know that would happen?" Ken asked the duo.  
"I guess I'll start first. My name's Yoshiya Kiryu, but I go by Joshua," Joshua introduced himself to the group.

"And I'm Neku Sakuraba," The orange haired boy introduced next. "To answer your second question, we're participants of the Reapers game, a contest to see if we're worthy of a second chance at life. You don't partner up with someone, you're as good as erased." Neku explained, leaving the other group with shocked looks on their faces.

"So we really are dead, huh?" Junpei said with a downed expression.

"I understand you have more questions, but we gotta rush now, 'cause time is not on our side right now. Follow me!" Neku motioned everyone to follow him, and they ran towards his direction. To the destination of their mission.

_3:21_

_3:20_

_3:19 _

* * *

**A/N: YES! FINALLY DONE THE THIRD CHAPTER! I'm deeply sorry for those who had to wait such a long time for this chapter to come out. It's just that my summer's been overly stacked with outings and such. However, I know that I'm not doing my job as an author, and some might be discouraged by the huge gaps between chapters. But don't worry, I will see this story through to the end, so bear with me here. I thank you for those who faved, followed, or reviewed this story as of this moment. See you guys in the next chapter!**

**As always, reviews/critiques are welcome.**


	4. Chapter 4: Collaborations and Revelation

**I'm back with a 4th Chapter! Before reading, let me first say that I am sorry for the long wait. I know it's been a long while since I updated, about a month ago I'd say. But thank you to those who are holding on to this story. Please enjoy this chapter. It's Thanksgiving weekend in Canada right now, so Happy Thanksgiving to all readers in Canada.**

**Reviews and criticisms are welcome!**

**Also for those wondering, I changed the 104 building to the 109, because that's what it's actually called in the real Shibuya.**

**Disclamer: I don't own Persona or The World Ends With You, they belong to Atlus and Square Enix respectively**

* * *

_Path to 109_

Neku and Joshua, along with S.E.E.S., made haste with their passage over to the 109 building. Their time was running very short as of the moment, with less than two minutes left on the clock.

_1:54_

_1:53_

_1:52_

"Dammit, gotta pick up the pace!" Neku thought to himself. They couldn't let themselves drop their stamina, or else they would not make it to the building in time. Granted, they would make it to the building in about a minute, but better safe than sorry.

About a minute later, they all had arrived at the 109 building, and the timers on their hands dissolved in black and red smoke, leaving any fear of being erased behind for now. The S.E.E.S. group nodded together at each other, feeling now was the best time to gain answers from the orange-haired stranger.

Joshua caught their expressions, and he was the first to speak out. "Now that we are out of the worry of being erased, I suppose it's time for some answers to be revealed"

The red-headed heiress was the first one from the group to speak, "We appreciate you're help from earlier, Sakuraba. But now we feel is the time that you started giving us some answers. Who are you actually? Why bother to help us when we never knew you? And explain to us this Reapers Game that we happen to be in right now."

Neku turned to face Mitsuru, the one he thought wouldn't be the first to lose their composure. "Geez lady, at least give me some time explain things. To answer two of your questions, I helped you because we have a mutual friend in Minato Arisato." The group had NOT expected to hear the name of their late leader, even less expected by some stranger whom they just met. "You know, Arisato-sempai?" Ken asked Neku, in a totally stupefied manner. "Yeah, we were friends since we were kids. We were practically brothers. To be quite honest, he was the first friend I ever made." Neku sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Then I suppose you've heard of the car incident twelve years ago?" The redhead asked the orangehead.

"...gotta say, that put me in a bit of a shock. I thought he was dead at the time. I got a letter from the PIPD stating so. I didn't know until recently that he had survived the crash... the guy could've sent me a letter or something, but I guess he had some other stuff to deal with."

"May I ask you who relayed to you that information, Sakuraba-kun?" The blonde android was the next one to speak out. She had a feeling she knows the answer.

"Ummm, it was a guy named Igor and his assistant Margaret. They're both pretty messed up in the head if you ask me. But you got to admit, out of all the crazy crap that they say, it's all true." Neku remarked.

"I see," Aigis responded, her suspicions confirmed, "Igor we all have definitely met, but I do not know of a woman named Margaret."

The silver-haired boxer was next to speak up. "Now can you explain to us what this 'Reaper's Game' is all about? Plus why are there Shadows here as well?"

Neku faced the boxer, pondering on what the best suitable answer might be. "...I think Joshua is the best person to talk to with that type of question," he said.

"Like Neku said before we arrived here, the Reaper's Game is an event in which people who have died in the RealGround, that would be the world of the living, have to win in order to gain a second chance at life. The player pins that you have right now and the timer that was recently on your hand signifies that you are players," explained Joshua, pointing towards the group. They all took a look at their bands, more specifically the skull pin that is attached to it. "To add, you would also have to pay an entry fee. But the Reapers don't mean pay with actual cash, but something that you would hold dear to you. For example, your memories, or your best friend. Even your physical feature."

_Now that he mentions it, I don't ever remember how we even died, let alone even coming to Shibuya,_ Yukari thought to herself. She would relay this thought to her teammates later.

"You say that the RealGround is where the living reside in. I'm guessing that the people around us are in the RealGround, but where are we? Why is it that no one can see us?" Fuuka asked them.

"We're in the UnderGround, or UG in short. It's where the Reaper's Game takes place. Sure we're in Shibuya, but the RealGround, or RG, and the UG are different planes of reality." Joshua explained.

"So that's the puerile reason why no one is able to see us..." Mitsuru pondered. "How do we win the Game?" she then asked.

"In order to win, you have to complete a set of challenges that 'The Reapers' give to you. Usually a person and their partner would be given a week to complete the Game, but Neku here was a special case." He directed his right hand towards Neku.

"I had to participate in the Game three times. My first entry fee was my memories from before I entered the game, then the second was someone dear to me, a friend of mine named Shiki Misaki. The third entry fee was everyone else, which left me voided of a partner. Until another friend of mine, Beat, came and helped me. After that last week, I won, got back to the RealGround, and retrieved my memories," he briefly paused there to collect his thoughts a little, as he didn't want to reveal that it was his partner that had him enter the Game in the first place. "Unfortunately, I don't know why I ended up back here."

"So basically, we just gotta keep finishing up whatever missions these 'Reapers' give us, and then we're home free huh? Doesn't seem too bad," Junpei said in his traditional upbeat timbre.

"Yeah, but that still leaves the Shadows. If they're here, we need to find out where they're coming from before any real trouble happens," Yukari added.

"So we all have set our goals here?" Mitsuru asked the group

"WOOF-WOOF," Koromaru barked in a sign of agreement. "You got it," the brunette agreed. "Hmm, another journey means another chance to kick some Shadow ass. How could I even think about passing this chance up," the senior boxer stated, smirking in delight while he was at it. "No way am I letting my friends be in danger," the teal-haired girl agreed. "Mmhm, I must become stronger too," Ken said. "I will not allow my friends to be killed or likewise, I will continue this journey as well!" Aigis said with newfound determination. "ALRIGHT! S.E.E.S. IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!" Junpei cheered at the thought of bringing back S.E.E.S.

Neku could only stare at the group. They were willing to go through with the hell that's been presented to them, and they looked like they were going to overcome the challenges set before them. He then chuckled. "You got some very determined friends, dude. Don't worry, I'll watch out for them," Neku spoke to the sky.

Then the spiky haired teen did a double take towards Joshua, who started walking away from the group. "You're not coming with us Joshua?" Neku asked his partner. "Nah, I got some things to take care of," Joshua replied back. "You know you're gonna leave me partner-less, right?" retorted Neku, in an expression of slight anger and disbelief towards his partner. At that point, Joshua threw something small towards Neku. Like the speed of a cat, Neku caught whatever it was his partner threw at him. As he opened his palm, he saw that he was holding a player pin. But it wasn't any normal player pin, as this one had a different colour scheme. Instead of a white skull and a black outer layer, it was now black and red respectively.

"The O-pin..." Neku said as he stared at the pin. "This isn't something that you would just give to me, why then?" "You're gonna need all the help you're gonna get. I've tweaked the pin a little to better fit your situation. Not only can you battle monsters on your own, but you can now pact and un-pact with any partner that you so desire. But remember this, you can only have one partner at any given time. Once you go for a new partner, the pact between you and your previous partner will be broken, in place of your new pact." Joshua finished explaining. Neku stared at his new pin for a few more good seconds.

"Alright, I guess I need something to go for, thanks man." Neku placed the pin in one of his pockets. "I trust that you will take care of our guests?" Joshua asked the blue-clad teen. "You can count on it." Neku responded back. "Good, I guess I'll be off then." As Joshua started walking away, he grew out two bright white wings. Everyone but Neku had a surprised look on their faces as he flew away towards the distance.

"This place just gets weirder and weider," the baseball-capped boy said. All the S.E.E.S. members nodded at that.

"Oh yeah, before we head out, I never really got your names. Igor only told me that Minato-san and a group of his very close friends kept back a monster that could've destroyed us all. He wasn't really specific on names," Neku asked the group.

Mitsuru and the others faced each other once again, deciding whether or not to reveal their identities to the stranger. "Well, he did reveal his and his ex-partner's name, and he knows about Minato and what he did. I guess it's only fair," the boxer suggested. They all nodded and turned back towards Neku.

Junpei was the first one to walk towards Neku, "Well then, I'll start off. My name's Junpei Iori, and any friend of Minato is a friend of mine for sure," Junpei introduced himself as he brought his right hand towards Neku for a handshake. Neku stared at the offered hand for awhile, and then took his hand into his and shook it. Both of them smiling at their new bonding.

Yukari stepped up next to introduce herself. "One thing you should note about Junpei though," she said as she brought her arm up the baseball-capped boy's right shoulder and leaned her elbow on it, "he's one hell of a slacker and a joker," Yukari joked. "Hey, I still resent that!" Junpei retorted as he brushed the brunette's arm off. "In any case, I'm Yukari Takeba, pleasure to meet you." In the same manner, she held out her hand and Neku shook it.

Fuuka came up to the spiky haired teen afterwards. "Greetings, my name is Fuuka Yamagishi. It's nice to meet someone who was friends with Minato-kun before us. I look forward to working with you," she greeted in a professional manner. She bowed towards the spiky-haired boy, and Neku could only rub the back of his head in a bit of embarrassment. He has never really been bowed down to.

Akihiko and Ken both walked up to Neku. Akihiko brought up his right hand and balled it up into a fist, "Hey there, the name's Akihiko Sanada, looking forward to kick some ass with ya." Neku fist-bumped him, smiling as well.

"My name's Ken, Ken Amada. A pleasure meeting you Sakuraba-sempai," Ken greeted the elder teen. "Don't mind him, he always regards us by our last names. Ken's a lot more mature than a good amount of us here," Akihiko remarked, ruffling Ken's hair while he was at it. Ken was practically cringing while his hair was being messed up. "Sanada-san, please don't mess with my hair. I'm not a little kid anymore," Ken said to the boxer.

The android and the Shiba-Inu were the next ones to introduce themselves to Neku. "Greetings, my name is Aigis. As you can see, I'm an android built to resemble a human. However, I can assure you I am very much human," the android said as the other teen observed her. Neku was, to say the least, intrigued by the android in a number of aspects: her ability to speak fluently like a normal human person, her social etiquette, and her mannerisms are equal to that of a normal human. Then again, Neku has a penchant for seeing weird things, so this didn't surprise him too much. "Aside from that, it is a great honour to meet you, Sakuraba-san." She outstretched her hand, and Neku shook it.

"RUFF!" Koromaru barked. Aigis crouched down to rub the dog's fur. "And this here is Koromaru, but we just call him Koro-chan. He is a Persona-user like us. He says 'Hello, it's such a great honour to meet you,'" Aigis said. Neku was slightly more surprised about Koromaru than he was with Aigis, bit just slightly. As Neku crouched down to the Shiba-Inu's level, Koromaru practically jumped towards Neku so fast that the teen almost lost his footing. He then licked Neku's face in happiness. "Hehehahaha. Hey quit it!" Neku laughed as he was bombarded with a mixture of dog tongue and saliva.

As Neku put the dog back on the ground, the last person to introduce herself walked up towards him. "I see you're making fast friends right now. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo, and I am temporarily leading this group as of this moment. Pleasure to meet you, Sakuraba." As soon as the red-haired heiress said her name, Neku was quickly put into thought. _Kirijo? Where have I heard that name before?_ he thought to himself. Telling himself to ponder on it later, he said to the heiress, "likewise."

After all the introductions were done, Mitsuru continued speaking. "As this is our first time experiencing this, "Reaper's Game," we have no bearings of this place at all. Since you have been in this Reaper's Game before, we ask you that you should become our field leader, as you have the most experience in this situation, and the fact that we would most likely stay together throughout the course of this game." The rest of the S.E.E.S. group nodded in agreement that they should elect Neku as leader. Neku thought about this for a little. It seemed like the best idea to go for, as his new comrades are totally new to the atmosphere of the Reaper's Game. Even if they can hold themselves very well in a fight against Shadows or Noise, they would be totally screwed if the next mission comes out and they don't know what to do. Plus, they seem to have the same goal as him: to find out why they were in this mess from the start. After a few more seconds of thinking, Neku concluded his decision. "Alright, I'll be field leader." The group felt a sense of relief when Neku made his decision.

"Glad to have you onboard," Yukari said in happiness.

"Heh, this certainly feels like a sense of deja vu," Akihiko remarked, as this certain scene had played out in the past before.

_CRASH_, Neku could hear the sound of something reminiscent of a sheet of glass shattering. Then a voice appeared../

_I am thou, and thou art I_

Time started to freeze, Neku's vision started to grow dark and he got a minor headache. _What the hell?_ he thought.

_Thou hast forged a new bond  
It brings thee closer to the truth  
Thou shalt be granted maximum blessings when creating Personae of the Fool Arcana_

As soon as the voice finished speaking, everything started to get brighter and time began to run its course again. "What's wrong Sakuraba-kun?" Aigis asked him. The group only just noticed Neku's right hand brought up to his forehead. "Uhh, it's nothing. Just a small headache," Neku reassured them. _Still, what was that thing. Hmmm, it must have been the other Personae that Igor and Margaret talked about._

The moments passed by as S.E.E.S. welcomed Neku into their group. They were starting to get tired. "YAAWWWWNNN, I'm so beat up after today! I feel like the floor is a good place to lie down here," Junpei said as he fell down the floor in a splat-like manner. "Mnn, you're right, I'm feeling quite tired myself," Fuuka said, rubbing her eyes. Neku looked at the rest of them. Junpei was lying down on the ground spread-eagled, Yukari's trying her best to keep awake but her eyes keep fluttering, Fuuka was self explanatory, Ken could barely stand on his own two feet at this point, and Koromaru was whimpering. Aigis was an android so she couldn't feel fatigue, Akihiko was a boxer so he has superb stamina, and Mitsuru only started to have bags starting to form under her eyes but nothing else majour on her end.

"Hmm, we can use my place to crash. It's not far, it's just by the Dogenzaka area, only a few minutes' walk from here. Think you guys are able to make that distance?" Neku suggested. Everyone nodded. "Alright then, let's go." They all started to head towards the direction of Neku's place.

* * *

_109 building, rooftop_

A figure in a black cloak watched over Neku's interactions with the group. The cloak was very reminiscent of the cloaks of Organization XIII, with the chains and all. The figure in question was holding a book about the size of a dictionary by her side. This book had elegant designs on its cover, and seemed to be generating some sort of ethereal energy. Just then, Joshua had flown above the figure and landed about a few feet away from the figure.

The wavy-haired boy's wings dissipated as his feet touched the surface. "So, is everything coming to your like? Ms. Conductor?" Joshua asked the cloaked figure, now known to be as a woman.

"I sense great power coming from the headphone boy. I can see why you recommended him, Mr. Composer," the cloaked being's feminine voice rang out like some sort of swan song. Joshua was starting to grow intrigue for this lady.

"You know, you still haven't told me your grand scheme of things. What will you plan to do with the Players?" the Composer asked the woman.

"That secret shall remain with me for the time being," The woman responded. "Really now? The other Game Officers aren't gonna like the way you're directing things. With you and your constant secrecy." Joshua told her in a snarky sort of way.

"Worry not, for all shall be revealed in due. You'll have a part to play in this too Composer," As she said that, she started to take off the hood of her cloak. Her face was of a slight pale complexion, and she sported pale yellow hair that reached down to her neck. The most striking feature are her yellow eyes.

"Ok then Ms. Conductor. Or should I say, Elizabeth."

* * *

**FINALLY I AM FINISHED WITH THIS CHAPTER. To start off, let me say that I am truly sorry for these one-month gaps. Sometimes I don't find the time to write, and when I do, I'm busy doing other stuff than writing this story. Not to worry though, as I will see this through to the end, as I have said before. So thanks for holding on, and I will see you next time.**

**Thank you readers, and Happy Thanksgiving!**


	5. Chapter 5: The First Day's End

**Greetings all, hope you're liking the story so far. I have no excuse as to why I was on a two-month hiatus. I apologize to those who have been agonizingly waiting for this chapter. I do like to write this story on my end, even if I don't update as often as other more proficient authors out on the FanFic-space. But as long as you guys are enjoying it, then I'm happy. On with the chapter then.**

**Disclaimer (as always with almost every FF): Neither TWEWY nor Persona Series are owned by me. The same goes for any known brand that is being shown in this story, real or not. OC's are mine though.**

_Chapter 5: End Day 1_

* * *

_Sometime ago, Outer space_

"Hmm? What is this feeling that's emitting?" I feel a strange sort of power, a power of which is beyond any of my understanding. I took a look upon the Earth beneath my feet. There was a glimmer of light emitting from that mass of land people called "Japan." "Could this be... the power I have long sought after?" I gasped in disbelief, disbelief that this was the power that I was seeking after all these years. The power needed to achieve my goal. "I must investigate. Wait for me, won't you?" She directed her attention to a tall, golden door. In the middle was a stone body, held up by chains and wires that attached him to the door.

_ROOAAAARRRRR_

I gasped and I directed my attention to the source of that horrible scream. Out of the empty darkness, a dark-coloured fist shot out of empty space. It headed straight to the stone body. As if it were on instinct, I shot my hand upwards and shouted, "INFINITY BARRIER!" A split second before the fist made it's destination, a barrier of bright light protected the stone figure before the fist made its impact. The hand then retracted back to the darkness from whence it came. I breathed heavily, as the split second barrier that I made took out a fair amount of my energy.

All of the sudden, a huge quake had erupted and it caught me off guard. I stumbled from the violent vibrations and failed to keep my balance. Like a shark jumping out of the sea to catch its prey, a giant monster erupted from the darkness. The monster's physique looked like that of a feral tiger, only it was thick with darkness. The head and rear had a frame that seemed to be made from a skull-like substance. Both head and rear of the beast had a pair of red, glowing orbs. The beast howled its blood-curling roar; I cringed as I brought my hands to my head.

This is the reason that I stayed in this space, this monster which was the source of evil that 'he' is trying to repel.

The monster: "Erebus"

As soon as he erupted from the darkness, he started to prepare for another attack against the door. Erebus reared his right fist, ready to thrust it at the door. "DON'T TEST ME! THANATOS! MEGIDO BULLETS!" I shouted as I opened my compendium. A card materialized in front of me, and I snapped my compendium shut which in turn, shattered the card.

In an instant, a black creature materialized behind me. "Thanatos" was a being with a similar aura to that of Erebus, the aura of death. Thanatos sported a black leather toga. The Persona wore a skull-like mask over his head in slightly the same fashion as Erebus, only except it was like a dinosaur in shape. It also had white gloves that were about arms-length and white, metal stockings on its legs. Eight coffins surrounded his upper body area and they were attached to a chain that was fastened around his neck and face. The persona also brandished a straight blade which it held in its its right arm.

Immediately after Thanatos was called, the persona of death roared an ear-splitting sound and outstretched his left arm towards Erebus. Nuclear energy was being enveloped around its fingertips. Five pellets of nuclear energy shot out from Thanatos' fingertips like bullets being shot from a gun. Each individual blast was at Mach 1 speed. It literally took less than 1 second for the Megido bullets to make their mark. The bullets pierced straight through Erebus' right arm. The monster of death reared back and yelled out in pain.

The rear head of Erebus started to face me, and as it did, it reared its head and lashed out towards me. A large fireball had launched from the head. "Come Surt!" I switched up my Personas just as soon as the fireball had came into contact with me. It impacted me and created a very large explosion only mere seconds after I made the switch.

"Hmm, so you like to play with fire huh? Well two can play at that game! RAGNAROK!" I closed the compendium on top of another card. Another being had been materialized in the same fashion as Thanatos. This new persona had dark-purple skin, with scattered scar-like patterns all over his body that resembled fire. It also held a blade engulfed in fire.

"raaaaaaAAAAAHHH!" Surt roared as a pillar of fire erupted in Erebus' front face. The blast was so powerful that Erebus had tripped backward a little bit and brought it's left hand to the front face.

Both of Erebus' head roared out, and a flash of red lightning energy emitted from both pairs of eyes. Figments of dark energy were being emitted from the monster's eyes, and they swirled to form a ball of black darkness. He was using the move, "Dark Embrace" and it was gonna take 20 seconds until it hits me full force.

"Seems like it's preparing its final desperate move. Seems like I have to, shall we say, 'kick things up a notch,' CU CHULAINN!"

Again, I broke another card on top of her compendium. This time, a much more humanoid figure had materialized. This new persona, "Cu Chulainn," had pale skin, and long black hair that ran to his mid-back. As armour, he wore white paladin armor that had thick purple outlines. He held a spear in his right hand

"TAUNT!" Cu Chulainn thrust his hands forwards, with his spear held horizontally. Erebus saw this as a taunt, and he roared out in anger. The only thing was that his defense was drastically weakened.

"TRUMPETEER! DEBILITATE!" I destroyed another card, this time it was an animated skeleton that wore robes of white, and a black cross scarf with white triangular patterns. He had white wings on his back, and of course, he held a trumpet on his hands.

The Persona blew the trumpet, and swirls of debilitating energy came from the sky. They hit the ground in an explosion and debuffed Erebus.

The ball that Erebus was charging up got larger. It was about to unleash its most fearsome attack, "Original Darkness." Only about 10 seconds until it hits.

"This certainly looks bad... Nothing I certainly can't handle. HEAT RISER!" The Trumpeteer blew in his trumpet again, only this time, a wave of strengthening energy enveloped me.

The ball continuously got bigger until it looked ready to burst, only about 5 seconds left.

"NOW! THANATOS! DOUBLE MEGIDOLAON NUKE!"

I summoned the black God of Death once more. The same energy that powered the Megido Bullets was gathering in front of Thanatos' mouth. Erebus launched the "Original Darkness" towards me, and at the same time, Thanatos shot the nuke towards the direction of the giant death ball. They both collided in a chaotically detonative result. It had blinded both our eyes for a second. When the dust cleared, so to speak, the Original Darkness was no more. It was thanks to the Debilitation and buffing that I was able to survive.

"SURPRISE YOU ABOMINATION!" I still had a second nuke prepared. Immediately after I goaded Erebus, the second Megidolaon Nuke shot out from Thanatos, breaking the sound barrier while it launched. You would only have to blink to miss the flash of light that blazed through the dark surrounding. The nukeball hit Erebus' face dead on, and a giant explosion had erupted. Erebus roared out a screech of pain, signifying its defeat.

I was gasping for air, as the Double Megidolaon Nuke took out a significant amount of my SP. Normally I'd toy around with my enemies, but I wanted to make this demon suffer.

"Even after all that, I am still not able to extinguish you forever," I solemnly stated as Erebus retreated back into the void from whence he erupted.

"Tch, this is getting out of hand. If this is truly the answer that I seek, then I must investigate," it was only a matter of time until Erebus acts up again. With the little bit of energy I had, I kicked off the moon towards the earth.

"I will return soon, Minato-sama," I took a double take towards the golden door. He'll feel so alone now. "Don't worry, I swear I will free you from this prison!" I swore to myself. But I started to grow unconscious as I gained acceleration towards Earth's gravitational zone.

My vision went black...

* * *

_Shibuya, present time April 9, 2012. 10:38 p.m._

_**BANG!**_

"OW!"

"Sakuraba-kun!" Fuuka shouted. Neku had hit his head on a wall. Not an invisible wall, but a wall adjacent to one that's full of graffiti. It looked really painful as Neku lost his balance and lost his footing. The orangehead had hit the ground on his butt, hard. "...ow," he grunted in pain as he rubbed his head with his left hand and his right butt-cheek with his right.

"That hurt..." Neku winced in pain. "Man, you should watch where you're going. A blind man would have been able to avoid that wall." Junpei joked. Everyone had a good chuckle of Neku's misfortune, with Neku being only slightly embarassed.

"I don't blame him though. The night has taken a toll on the rest of us," the Kirijo empress said. "Yeah, you're right. Just like always Mitsuru," Akihiko added, "so how much longer until we reach your place Neku?"

"Uh... we're here," The spiky-haired orange head spoke. He looked up, and lo and behold, his misfortune had led to his goal. His apartment building was rather huge. Ranging to about 100-150 meters high, this building was about 20 floors high. Ornate wave designs surrounded the building. Aside from the standard block shape that it had with most buildings, you can't deny that a lot of time had been put onto it. "My place is on the 13th floor," Neku directed. The group walked up in front of the lobby door.

"Heh, good. I'm getting tired just carrying the little kid," The silver-haired boxer directed his attention to Ken Amada, whom he's carrying on piggyback. The little kid was out cold.

"Heh, did I hear that right? Akihiko-sempai? Tired?! I wouldn't believe it at all!" Yukari jeered. "But given our current situation, I don't know what to believe anymore," the brunette added

"You're right, Yukari-san. It's a little too hard to take in. Us being dead and somehow ending up in Shibuya, in an alternate plane of reality if I might add," Fuuka reveled.

"We should continue this conversation later, once we achieve our rest. My primary motor functions are starting to weaken as well, and they never weakened before." Aigis said. She tried moving her arms. While they are still functioning properly, the android's expression proves otherwise. She was straining.

"Heh, even Aigis is starting to get weary. If she's starting to tire out, then we won't be far behind. Let's head in." Mitsuru ordered. "Ruff!" Koro barked in agreement. The Shiba-Inu started to walk towards the door, but Fuuka caught him before he was about to make contact with the door.

"Uhh... do you think that we should just walk in like this?" The teal haired girl asked, wary of the fact that the group was supposed to be dead.

"Heh, we'll know one way or another," Neku said as he casually walked right up the front door.

"Wha-Wait a minute, Sakuraba!" Fuuka tried to warn him, but was too late as the elusive spike-haired teen walked right in the doors.

"Welcome back, Neku-san! How was your day?" The concierge behind the desk spoke in a somwhat less-than-formerly fashion. The lobby was your typical lobby. There was a little waterfall on the left adjacent to the front door, a fireplace on the right adjacent to the door, the info desk on the right side opposite of the lobby, and there were couches right in front of the fireplace. Aside from those, there were a bunch of The concierge looked like a rather laid-back person. He wore a penguin suit tux, like any concierge would, but there was something about him that made him seem less formal than he looked. Maybe because from what it seemed, he doesn't take his job too seriously. A fact made more possible as his hair was in a dirty fashion.

"...What the-" Junpei was the first to speak out in a bewildered manner. It was safe to say that the rest of S.E.E.S. were confused as hell as well. "But I thought people couldn't see us while we're in the Reapers Game..." Yukari was the next to say something.

"Really messed up Izuki-san. You wouldn't know the half of it," Neku conversed with the concierge casually. "Hmm... well, I'm not you, so I wouldn't ponder on people's lives," Izuki the concierge smiled at him. "Oh yeah, this came in the mail for ya," Izuki handed Neku a paper package. Neku took it and he made a look of slight surprise as he saw it. The package was like a normal package, but there was no name of sender, no address either. On it was the name "Neku" in neat cursive, and on the top right of the paper package was a pin. The Reaper's skull symbol was the design.

"Reaper's Game huh?" Izuki said to him. "Yeah... easy guess huh?" Neku asked. "Yup, not a pleasant thing to go through. I've never entered it, I always stayed on the safe side. But I know a few people who have..." The concierge rubbed the back of his neck. "Wait, I didn't see a Reaper's Mark when I walked into the building, where did you-" "Ah!" Izuki interrupted Neku by pointing towards the chandelier. Neku looked to where he was pointing. The platform that the chandelier was hanging from was shaped like a Reaper's Mark. "Heh, who would've thought?"

"Oh by the way, who are your friends? Oh but wait, this is Neku Sakuraba I'm talking about. Aside from Shiki, Beat and Rhyme, what other friends have you got?" That remark gave Izuki an instant black eye, courtesy of Neku's right fist. "OW! You didn't need to punch me THAT hard!" The black-eyed concierge whined. "Heh, you deserved that. Plus it wasn't that bad, it was really a light punch. It just happened to hit the most vital part of your face." Neku rubbed his right knuckles.

"Right... so who are your new friends anyway?" Izuki diverted his attentions to the group of strangers. "Oh... umm... how should I put this? They're-"

"We were drafted in the Reaper's Game against our will. Sakuraba here saved us before we were about to be 'erased.'" Mitsuru answered the question whilst butting into Neku.

"Ah, I see. Judging by your outfits, you guys must still be in high school, right?" Izuki observed. S.E.E.S. looked down to observe as well; they were still in their Gekkou uniforms. "Oh... uh we were like this when we entered in the Game. I don't remember what I wore before, but it wasn't our school uniform. I'm surprised that it still fits." Yukari moved around, observing her uniform at all angles.

"Hmm, forgive me for prying but, do you know how you died?" Izuki asked again. "It's just as Yukari said, we don't know or remember what happened to us before we died. We just ended up here." Akihiko answered.

"I see, well. I guess I should introduce myself to you all, as I had completely forgotten. My name is Izuki Kobayashi. Welcome to Shi-Ichi Hotels, home to our little friend here Neku. I've been a friend to this guy ever since his mom had me babysit him when he was 5," the friendly concierge said to the group, rubbing Neku's head. The orange-head could only make a face of slight humiliation, as he didn't like his past relayed to his friends, especially friends who were strangers at first.

Mitsuru chuckled, "At least it's good to meet some friendly faces. We should introduce ourselves too. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. These are my friends, the reckless one, Akihiko Sanada,"

"Yo,"

"The boy on his back is Ken Amada." The silver-haired boxer shifted his body so that the sleeping boy could be brought to view by their new acquaintance

"The energetic one is Junpei Iori,"

"Hey nice to meet ya!" The capped senior tipped off his hat to the friendly.

"The charming one is Yukari Takeba."

"Hiya, it's good to be making some friends at a time like this." Yukari smiled.

"The timid one is Fuuka Yamagishi,"

"Hello there." Like her description, she smiled pretty timidly.

"This loyal Shiba-Inu of ours is Koromaru," She directed towards the dog.

"RUFF!"

"And... umm," The empress had found difficulty on how to introduce the android.

"It's okay Mitsuru-san, I am Aigis. As you can see, I am an android," Aigis introduced herself.

"Wow, never thought I'd meet an android. Thought that kind of thing would only happen in manga or whatever. Ah well, new things happen everyday. As for how you're all gonna stay here..."

"They'll be with me." Neku said.

"Oh really, alright then. I'll leave that planning up to you."

"May I ask you something Kobayashi-san? You are able to talk to us, be we are in the Reaper's game, and no one is able to see, hear, or touch us. How is it that you are able to?" The android asked.

"Easy, look up," The concierge pointed upwards. Everyone minus Ken and Neku looked at the chandelier, and focused their attention on the baseplate, which was the Reaper's Mark.

"Some places are marked with a traditional Reaper's mark. Any place marked with these symbols are known as inter-lap zones. To explain, The UG exists in the same space/time as the RG, but the UG has a higher vibration frequency. Going into that, the people in the RG cannot generally see, hear, or in any way interact with people and objects in the UG, whereas the people in the UG, us, can see and hear events that happen in the RG, but we can't interact with people there either. In order to interact with the RG from here, someone or something has to change the vibration frequency so that the frequency from both the UG and the RG will have the same frequency. Objects that fit the pattern are Modulator Decals, objects made by the Reapers that can allow contestants of the game to interact with the RG. However, I didn't think that my apartment would be an inter-lap zone though. Does the zone pervade the whole apartment, Izuki?" Neku asked his friend, but caught the guy to be napping. "Zzzzzz," the concierge snored pretty loud. "Hey! Wake-up! I'm asking you something!" Neku shook his head with his right hand.

"Wuh-wah, what? Oh, um, that's what this lady in a black cloak said," Izuki said.

"Wait a minute, what lady in a black cloak?" Neku interoggated.

"Yaaawwwwwnnn, I think I'll have to answer your question later dude, it's a little bit on the late side for me. To you other guys, I know Neku might be a pain in the ass sometimes, but look after him would ya? He gets into more trouble than he's worth, but he's a good guy. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna nap a little..." it wasn't long until Izuki fell into blissful sleep.

"Geez some concierge you are, well he's still a good guy though," Neku turned to S.E.E.S., "my room is on the 13th floor, just follow me." As they headed for Neku's residence, the boy could only ponder on one thing, _What the hell was that vision that I just saw?_

* * *

_5 minutes later, floor 13_

"Here we are... oh boy," Neku exhaled. He and company have reached their destination. A mahogany door with the number "1301" on a brass plate nailed onto the door.

"Oh good, I can finally take a nap!" Junpei said, outstretching his arms.

"Uh... I don't think that's such a good idea at the moment Junpei-kun," Fuuka warned the capped boy.

"Whaddaya mean?" Junpei asked.

"If what Neku-san says is right, he has a mother at home..." Yukari pondered

"Okay, and the point is?" Akihiko asked.

"You ever hear the saying, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?' Something tells me Neku-san has himself neck-deep into trouble." Fuuka responded. Neku was gonna have one hell of a night.

"...Uh, you guys mind hanging out here until things die down? I think this might take a little while..." Neku shuddered.

"Hmmm, very well. We will wait for your signal. Everyone step aside." Mitsuru ordered.

"Wha... Why?" Junpei complained.

"Sakuraba is going to face punishment by himself. We must honour his bravery. Good luck Sakuraba." Mitsuru led the others out of the nearby vicinity.

"...Here we go." Neku reassured himself as he opened the door. He was holding himself back for a bit, but he took a deep breath, turned the doorknob, and carefully opened the door.

As soon as he entered the room, it was silence. Not a single sound was heard when stepped inside the residence. The only sound that was being emitted were the air conditioning units in different rooms. The lights were on, however, which indicated that at least someone was inside.

The residence was considerably large if you compare it to other apartments. Beside the entrance door, there was a spot where shoes were placed. A shoe rack was positioned just next to the door against the wall. Two other pairs of shoes, A pair of Tigre Punk Custom Sneaks, and a pair of red D+B high heels and a pair of bunny slippers were placed on a rug that was the rack was placed on. A small stool was placed along the wall beside the shoe rack. On the adjacent wall, there was a closet that held various types of jackets. A washroom was beside the closet. There was a dining table to the left a few meters away from the door. Ten chairs surrounded the table, one on both ends of the table, and four on either side. A designer light fixture of eight lightbulbs hung above the table. To the right side of the room was a portable kitchen that stretched from the passage to another room, to the wall on Neku's side. Everything was there, from left to right on top of the countertop, there was a toaster, a microwave, a bunch of snacks ranging from crackers to cereal, a Coffee maker, a combined stove and oven, and a double door refrigerator and freezer. Overhead was a cupboard whose purpose was to store an assortment of plates and bowls. The countertop also had a ton of compartments that held pans and other cooking items. There was another counter that was about three metres away from the wall. A sink was placed there and a space which was used as a cutting area. Past the dinner table was a living room that was set up like some sort of home theatre. A flat screen Bravia TV at the end of the room which was placed on top of a wooden TV stand, with two large speakers on either side of the TV. A subwoofer just below the TV. Beside it was a Playstation 3 Slim, a Nintendo Wii and a PVR. Placed inside the TV stand were a bunch of DVD's and games. In the middle of that room segment was a coffee table that had four Dualshock 3 controllers, and three sofa's surrounded the table. Between the home theatre room and the portable kitchen, there were two doors which led to two different bedrooms: a master bedroom and a smaller one which belonged to Neku. Both doors were closed.

"...I'm home!" Neku timidly spoke out, bracing for the hell that was about to come. Immediately after he said that, the door to the master bedroom had open. A lady no later than her mid-thirties to early-forties had opened the door. She had auburn hair that flowed down and reached her shoulders. Various strands were poking out from different areas of her head. She had hazel eyes, and there were slight bags forming under her eyes but are just barely noticable. Her face was smooth and devoid of any make up, but she still looked rather pretty without it. Her overall skin was the same as well: lightly tanned, smooth, not too skinny nor fat, it was just right. She was wearing a blue yukata with pink and yellow flower designs and a red obi around her waist. The yukata fit perfect on her slender figure. She scowled at the teenager, and started walking towards the poor boy. Judging by these actions, it was safe to assume that this was Neku's mother, and boy was she pissed.

"NEKU SAKURABA, WHERE IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Neku's mother yelled out.

"Mom, can you lay off me?! I had a rough day today, and it's still bugging me now." Neku responded.

"Oh, important you say!? What's so important that you had to scare the living daylights out of your mother?! Work with Shiki and her dresses at D+B? Hanging out with Beat and Rhyme? Or maybe having coffee at WildKat! Normally you'd be back an hour before dinner! But it's almost 10!" Neku was continually pummeled by scoldings by his mother. Neku tried to put his headphones at a futile attempt to block out his mother's scoldings, but she shouted out yet again, "HIDING BEHIND YOUR MUSIC WON'T HELP YOU OUT NOW!"

"MOM PLEASE! JUST CALM DOWN! I'm sorry that I'm way past curfew, but you know I would be home when I have to! I would have told you if something come up. I'm sorry," Neku said in an attempt to calm down his raging mother.

She tried to open her mouth to say something again, but she couldn't find any more words to say. There was truth behind her son's words that she could not deny. She proceeded to hug her son, sobbing while she was at it. "Please, don't (sniff) go into any more trouble (sniff) again. (sniff) I've almost lost you a few times (sniff) already. I don't want you to leave me again." The mother said through wracked sobs. Neku was in a completely awkward position at this point. He can't tell his mother that he's in the Reaper's Game, or else she would break down even further. All he could do was bring his arms and further embrace the crying mother.

"I know you're there," The auburn-haired mother called out.

Slowly, the members of S.E.E.S. awkwardly crept into the household. Junpei gave an awkward smile and an awkward chuckle, and he rubbed the back of his neck out of nervousness. Fuuka was looking in a different direction, trying to look away from the look of the elder Sakuraba. Yukari looked down and toyed with her hair, trying to keep her attention away from the situation before her. Akihiko, Mitsuru, and Aigis look as casual as ever, but Akihiko was starting to feel more fatigue as he spent the last several minutes holding onto a sleeping kid. However, Koromaru rushed up to the younger Sakuraba and sat down beside him, panting and waggling his tail while he was at it.

"Well, look at you." The Sakuraba woman let go of her embrace of Neku, and crouched down to pet the little puppy. She still had tears in her eyes, but they dried up in a matter of several seconds.

The rest of S.E.E.S. smiled at this scene. "Sorry, you all must have heard all of that, did you? My name is Sakuraba Kaede. You all already know me as the mother of Neku here," Kaede answered.

"It's nice to meet you Kaede-sama. My name is-" Mitsuru tried to introduce herself, but the mother's index finger touched the empress' lips, interrupting her.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I don't think now is the time to be introducing yourselves. It is awfully late and you all must be tired." Kaede told them.

"Yeeessss, I'm so dead-beat tired!" Junpei exclaimed. He ran and jumped onto the sofa in the theatre room.

"Wha- STUPEI! At least have SOME manners! I'm sorry Kaede-sama, my friend Junpei just can't seem to show proper etiquette." Yukari sheepishly said.

"Hehe, it's nothing. By looking at all your faces, I can tell that all of you deserve some sleep." The mother smiled.

"Thank you Sakuraba-sama. We apologize for intruding your home. Your son offered us a place to stay." Aigis said.

"Oh did he now?" Kaede looked back towards Neku, and he had a look of instant worry on his face. She smiled again, "It's okay, a friend of Neku is always welcome here. Though I did not expect him to have so many friends already. He was always such a distant boy back then, but I appreciate the change that he is going through." The worry that was on Neku's face changed to an expression of slight joy.

"I see that your friend has already taken the larger sofa, so I can have two more people sleep there. You and the little one can sleep on the remaining couches." She directed her attention to Akihiko and the still-asleep Ken. "Thank's ma'am. We'll find a way to repay your kindness soon," the silver-haired boxer said as he took off his and Ken's shoes, and went to the sofas. He laid Ken down on the smaller one and he jumped onto the remaining one. He dozed off a few seconds after he jumped on the sofa.

"As for the girls. I am afraid to say that I only have three futons that you can use to sleep around either here or my bed room. Neku usually uses them when his friends are over."

"Thank you for your kindness Miss. I'm surprised that you are not fazed by my friend here." Fuuka said.

"Hmmm, I do have to admit though, that is one very impressive cosplay. You look very convincing," the Sakuraba lady observed.

"Oh, umm... yes! I spent a lot of time getting this costume right. In fact, it's so impressive that I can't seem to take it off." Aigis went on with the lie.

"...Okay then. I don't know what to do with the last futon though-" "It's okay, I can sleep on the floor." Aigis interrupted the mother.

"No I can't have that... Hmmm..."

"I can share a futon with Ai-chan here," Yukari offered.

"B-But Yukari-san, won't it be uncomfortable for you?" The android raised the concern.

"It's alright, what's wrong with us sharing futon's for one night?" Yukari asked.

"Well... If it's only for one night, then I suppose," Aigis said.

"Very well then, we'll proceed to prepare the futon's. Thank you Sakuraba-sama." Mitsuru bowed.

"As I said, no problem. The futon's are in my room. I'll go get them." Kaede went into her room. As she went into her bedroom, a rather plain room with a your normal queen-sized bed, closet, night-stand and TV, she went to the closet. She grabbed the three futons and brought them into the living room. "Here you go," she said as she put them on the floor. "Again, we owe you our thanks, Kaede-sama." Yukari thanked her.

"You don't need to thank me, you can do that when you're all rested up." Kaede said as she went back into her room.

"Well, I suppose we'll get our rest now. Good night guys." Neku said as he went into his own bedroom as the girls went to assembling their futons. Mitsuru and Fuuka now slept soundly in their futons, and the same can be said about Yukari and Aigis, who don't seem to have any problems with sharing.

In the master bedroom, Kaede could not get any sleep, because there was one thought that kept on pervading her mind and could not get her any sleep.

_Mitsuru Kirijo._

* * *

**Before I close off, I apologize again for this late chapter. I know things have been rough, what with everything that has been happening, although I won't say what. But still, I hope that you all will stay safe from whatever trials you guys, the readers, will face. In any case, thank you all for reading my story up until now. You have no idea how much it means to me :).**

**Reviews/Criticisms are much appreciated.**

**Here is a sneak peak on what is to come.**

* * *

_Next time on Of Reapers and Shadows._

_"The goal that I am striving for is the eradication of the evil that I have been fighting for the past two years"_

_"Do you know a man named Rai Sakuraba?"_

_"I don't know what you-"_

_"Don't lie to me Mitsuru Kirijo-san"_

_"It's time to start our little challenge of the day, and I can't wait to get my revenge on those sons of digits!"_

_"Don't worry, you'll have you're revenge. That's what we're here for, right Jin?"_

_"Who in the world is this new Composer?"_

_"Junpei, how you've grown."_

_"CHIDORI!"_

_Next arc: The Magician's Lament_


	6. Chapter 6: The Magicians Lament Pt 1

**Hello all! Being that I have a 2 week holiday, I can try to upload more often. In any case, I am grateful to all who have been reading this story up until now. **

**Now we get into the meat of it!**

**Reviews/Critiques are welcome as always.**

**Disclaimer: I don't mean to stress this, but as always, Persona Series and TWEWY belong to Atlus and Square Enix respectively. But any OC's are my property.**

**Without further ado, let's see what kind of hell awaits our heroes!**

**WARNING: CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT, NOT FOR THE SQUEEMISH.**

* * *

_Ch. 5: The Magician's Lament Pt.1_

* * *

_Nearby building adjacent to Shi-Ichi_

"Out like a light," Joshua remarked. He and Elizabeth overlooked the scene. The Velvet resident, still clad in her black cloak, telepathically flipped through the pages in the compendium. The pages stopped turning when she reached a certain spot, then a glowing card levitated from the book. The Tarot card known as, "The Fool," was emanating a light blue light.

"The Fool. Interpretated as one who takes on the great mysteries of life. This path is known traditionally in Tarot as the Fool's Journey, and is frequently used to introduce the meaning of Major Arcana cards to beginners." Elizabeth stated.

"Hmmm, and I suppose our protagonist Neku will take on the greatest mystery of his life, or so I presume." replied the Composer.

"Correct. You see, the reason that I am here is to test the will of the friends dear to the world's savior. I took the role of Conductor to oversee the progress of the 4th Fool." Elizabeth explained.

"The 4th Fool? Who are the other ones?" asked Joshua, curious as to what mystery surrounded this woman and her connection to the Game's new contestants.

Right when the silver-haired Composer said that, three cards floated from the Compendium. "The 1st Fool, Minato Arisato. A one of a kind Fool. Through the bonds he had made with his friends, he overcame Death. He saved us all from an inevitable force at the cost of his life. The 2nd Fool, Aigis. She inherited her Wild Card ability from Minato, and used it to learn the truth of his sacrifice. Finally, The 3rd Fool, Yu Narukami. Through the power of bonds, he dispelled the fog of lies, and gave humanity the 'Truth.'"

"Truth?" Joshua asked, wondering what kind of truth can be so sacred.

"This is no ordinary truth, not one that can be made up and believed in. This is the genuine Truth, the truth behind life's greatest meaning. Now thanks to him, a lot more people are starting to have a more positive outlook on life. To be quite frank, it's enlightening. Hmmm... I should thank him whenever I have the chance, as his selfless act has taken me another step closer to my goal." Elizabeth said.

"Might I ask what your goal might be?" Joshua asked once again.

"I'm afraid you are going to have to hold on to that question for a later date, my dear Composer. Or should I refer you to Joshua?" Elizabeth asked as she faced the silver haired teenager. "It's amusing. Here you are, asking me what my true purpose is, when you haven't asked me anything at all over the course of the past couple of weeks."

"That would be because you haven't done anything this interesting over the past couple of weeks," Joshua retorted, with a smug look on his face.

"...Touché," Elizabeth chuckled.

* * *

_The next day_

* * *

"YAAAAWWWNN!" Junpei was the first to awake in his sleep. He outstretched his arms as he sat up from the sofa. Once he was done, he looked around the room: Akihiko was sleeping sitting up on the sofa adjacent to his by the window, Ken was still sleeping soundly on the other sofa, and the rest of the girls were sleeping in a group. The morning sun was still in its rising stage, and the light emitting from it was bursting through the window, coming into contact with Chido-

_"Wa-wa-wait a minute... Chidori?" _was the first thought that ran by the capped boy's head when he saw the figure that stood there. He blinked a couple of times, hoping that it was all an illusion, but to no avail as no matter how many times his vision briefly blanks, she still stands where she stood. The woman in question was pale, literally. Everything about her was a pale, sickly white. From her pale skin her white gothic lolita clothes. The only part of her that was drastically different about the blanche colour palette was her crimson hair that went as far as her waist. Her face was what grabbed Junpei's attention the most. Aside from her brown eyes, she had this smile on her.

That was just it, no emotions to back it up, it was just this smile that she was wearing. Her facial expression didn't change at all, she just kept a straight face while smiling. The whole situation was completely ethereal. Just looking at Chidori's face made the hair on the capped-boy's neck stand up. Junpei had just noticed it but gradually the noise, whether it be from the A/C unit or the ringing from Junpei's ears, was dimming down until it was deafeningly silent. At this point there was no sound to be heard of at all, but the area around Junpei started to black out too. Everything was fading to black: the scenery of the room, The S.E.E.S. members, and the sunlight hitting Chidori started to fade, but she wasn't fading along with everything else. She was as clear as could be. The only thing about her was that she started to glow.

"Ch-Chidori? What's going on? Why-no, HOW are you here!?" Junpei was throwing questions at her. A panicked expression was written all over his face.

The woman, or rather the specter of Chidori, started striding over to the panicked male. She made no movement with her legs, she practically floated over to Junpei. He couldn't move, he was just stuck there on the spot, the fear completely paralyzed him. Once Chidori reached Junpei, she brought her right hand up to his cheek, and slowly drew her face towards his.

Junpei, with eyes extremely wide as they could be, could only mutter out, "C-Chidori! St-," until her lips met with his. The capped boy was utterly clueless about the situation, Chidori shouldn't even be here at all, given her situation as well as his own. He was paralyzed on the spot. He couldn't do anything aside from letting Chidori's lips stay fixated on his.

All of the sudden, Junpei felt an extremely sharp pain in the middle of his mind. It was head-splitting, as if a giant knife was being stabbed onto your forehead, only instead of the grasp of instant death, it was like the supposed blade was being twisted on the spot it was stuck in. Junpei couldn't even scream, all the pain was being forcibly stuck within him, and it was something no human being should ever feel.

On top of all that, it felt like a part of his soul was being extracted from him, violently on top of that. As Chidori withdrew from Junpei, something like an ethereal figure was coming out of Junpei. The red-haired girl looked like she was grabbing the transparent figure with her teeth, and it wasn't long until the figment was completely extracted from Junpei, and pervaded Chidori.

For some reason, Junpei felt a lot more weaker than he normally was. His motor muscles couldn't work; Junpei couldn't even lift a finger. There was no one that he could shout to if he could, he was left for dead.

A figure appeared alongside Chidori. Junpei could instantly recognize it as the girl's Persona, Medea. Only this time the appearance was slightly different. The skull head was a lot more rustic, and the eyes were literally flaming red. The bone "hair" on her back was flowing on its own; there was no wind that was propelling the hair. Sitting on top of its head was a crown of bones and skulls that was fixed on top of the Persona's horns. On top of all that, the red flame designs that were on her limbs were moving, like a free-flowing animation of some sort. That's not all however, the most frightening feature was her form of weaponry. In place of her traditional dagger were claws on both her hands. They weren't normal gloved claws, they were protruding out of her hands. Metal spikes were sticking out from her flesh past her elbow, strands of it were still lingering. What were once fingers were now grotesque claws, ready to savage and brutally mutilate its target.

This wasn't Medea anymore, it was an entirely new persona.

"..._**Persephone**_," muttered Chidori. The persona, now dubbed Persephone, let out a blood-curdling roar. It was ear-splitting, but it smacked Junpei out of his stupor. The once-disabled motor functions inside the capped boy's body were now properly functioning. He opened and closed his fingers to test his motor functionability.

"Okay Chidori, I don't know how you're even in here, but I'm getting out!" Junpei reached for his holster, grabbed his Evoker, and pointed it at his temple. "**Persona!"** He pulled the trigger, and an instantaneous flow of energy welled up from within him. But what he saw was completely unexpected.

"...HERMES!?"

There was no doubt about it. What was once Trismegistus is now Hermes, originally Junpei's initial persona. The vibrant and bright mixtures of gold, silver and red were now replaced with dark and weak colors such as bronze and iron. The gold on the persona's wings have lost their polish and now look rustic.

"Grrr, dammit! I can't dwell on this now! GIGANTIC FIST!" Hermes started to fly backwards to rear back his attack, then at once he flew directly towards Chidori. However, Persephone phased her hand through the goth's head and caught the fist that was aiming for it. The persona, with Hermes' fist in its palm, brought its hand over her head, twirled Hermes over her head a few times then threw the helpless persona back at Junpei's direction. Hermes hit the area of the floor in front of Junpei with a force that could crash through brick walls. Junpei reacted with the pain, buckling his knees due to the sheer amount of punishment that was being dealt.

"Ngh shit! Getting...weaker." The capped boy was indeed as he says; his health was decreasing rapidly due to the punishment he was receiving and the cost of his physical attacks. Attack after attack, Junpei tried his best to fend for himself, but to no avail, as Persephone took the hits like a sponge absorbing water. For some reason, his spiritual energy was being depleted as well. He could feel it leaving his body.

His train of thought instantly crashed as he saw Persephone's eyes explode in red fire. The ravaging persona let out another blood-curdling howl. Due to the deafening sound, Junpei was left completely open with his defense drastically weakened. With that, in one swift motion, Persephone kicked off the ground and leapt at a speed that could easily disintegrate the sound barrier. In a split second, it rammed both its claws into Junpei's chest.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

With all of his breath, Junpei let out a cry of extremely tormenting pain. "GRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!" Persephone twisted her hands inside the helpless boy, the flesh and blood that were being ravaged and ripped apart painting both of her claws. After a few more seconds of agonizing suffering, Persephone threw Junpei towards the direction of her master. Splashes of blood made a trail in mid-air as the flesh-riddled Junpei flew. As he landed on the floor beneath Chidori's feet, whatever blood that was still being pumped splattered all over the floor on which he bounced and landed.

"(cough) CHUH! CHAH!" Even still, Junpei was still able to cough out unbelievable amounts of blood. He tilted and fell on his back, his health, stamina, and spiritual energy almost-to-completely depleted. With whatever strength that was seemingly left within him, he fixated his gaze on Chidori's face. She still wore that same smile when this whole slaughterfest started.

"...Junpei..., thank you..." There was an ethereal echo in Chidori's voice. "...c-Ch-Chi-Chido-" Junpei tried to speak to her with what little strength he had in him, but he was too weak to even utter a single word.

"...Now...time to die." A chained axe sprung out of Chidori's sleeve, and with a single motion, she swung the axe over her head and brought it downward on the defenseless boy.

It was the end for him, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the axe coming into contact with his face and the mental screaming inside his head before that.

* * *

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Junpei rose up abruptly from the sofa, the blanket covering him flying off of his body.

"HEY! Take it easy man! Everybody else woke up early while you were still out. So I covered a blanket over you." Akihiko, standing by the kitchen counter, said to the now-awake boy.

"Oh, is that so?" Junpei looked over to his right, looking at the digital clock by the TV.

_11:18 a.m._

"(sigh) What happened while I was out?" Junpei asked his senior.

"...tch. All I can say was it was a little bit crazy. I'll grab some cereal, let's talk it over a bit. Our next mission doesn't start until noon, so we've got plenty of time."

"Alright. Where is everyone anyways?" Apparently the only ones in the room were the capped boy and the silver-haired senior. Not even Kaede was in the vicinity.

"They all went out to do their stuff, to get a lay of the land. We're all gonna meet up at the Scramble Crossing before the mission starts.

"...Okay I getcha. So tell me, what happened this morning while I was out?"

* * *

**A/N: ****I know this is a little shorter compared to the other chapters, but this will be the set-up for what's to come. **I'll still try to continue this to the best of my ability. I'm gonna try to keep the characters to the canon personalities, so warn me if it's a little too OOC. 

**I still can't believe that this story got 1k views. That's a milestone for me. Thank you to all those who're reading and enjoying this story.**

**I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. Until next time!**


	7. Chapter 7: Scrambled Eggs and Memories

**Back with another chapter. Thank you readers and viewers. I hope you enjoy this next chapter! **

**As always, please review and critique**

**Disclaimer: TWEWY and Persona belong to Square Enix and Atlus respectively**

* * *

_Ch. 7: The Magician's Lament Pt. 2: Scrambled Eggs and Memories_

* * *

_Morning of the 2nd day_

_11:20 a.m._

"So tell me, what happened this morning while I was out?" Junpei asked Akihiko, sitting upright on the sofa. Akihiko came over with 2 cup of coffee. one black and one with cream. He gave the cream one to Junpei, then sat down on the adjacent couch.

"Hooo, well. For lack of a better word, I'd say it was a little bit hairy... Where should I start?"  
Akihiko started to contemplate as he brought his hands together and brought them up to his face whilst resting his elbows on his knees, initiating a thinking pose.

* * *

_Flashback (Normal POV)_

_9:13 a.m._

_The morning sunrise hit the windows of room 1301, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. As if on cue, the S.E.E.S. members woke up from their brief yet rejuvenating sleep, all except Junpei of course. The now-awoken players of the Reaper's game underwent their morning habits: the stretching of arms, the rubbing of eyes, the scratching of their backs, the ruffling of their hair, etc. Akihiko leapt off the bed and outstretched his arms and legs outward, and exhaled deeply once he let his arms down. Koromaru shook his body around to get any sort of dust off of his fur. The girls got out of their futons moments after. Ken rose up from the sofa, and he too outstretched his arms before getting off the couch and standing on his own two feet. Junpei, on the other hand, just kept sleeping, constantly shifting his position until he stopped at the position facing the ceiling._

_Yukari walked over to the sleeping cap-head, and shook his body. "Junpei? Stuuuuuupei?" She said in a sing-song voice. The pink-clad persona user kept rocking his body back and forth, each shake slightly more violent than the last. She made sure that she wouldn't push or pull the sleeping victim so hard that he would fall off the couch. But even so, Junpei still wouldn't get up._

_"Hmmmm... what should I do to wake his lazy ass up?" Yukari thought out loud._

_All of the sudden, everyone's cell phones started to ring. Everyone wore a look of panic. If the experience yesterday has not disappeared yet, they knew that the phone call meant one thing: the next mission in the Reapers Game was about to begin. Frantically, Yukari started to shake Junpei even more violently. "Wake up NOW! Stupei c'mon!" Even after all these attempts, the results still remain the same. "Geez, how much sleep can one guy possibly get?"_

_"There is no need to worry, Yukari-san. Check your phone," Aigis told her. Everyone else had their phone open. Yukari then flipped hers. The message reads as shown:_

_"Mission delayed until 12:00 p.m.  
-The Reapers"_

_Yukari exhaled in relief. _I hope I didn't shake him too har- no what am I saying!? Don't see why he needs to nap out more than he needs to... Then again, he is lazy Stupei after all. Heh, things just never change do they? _ Yukari thought._

_"...Don't you find it odd that our mission today was delayed?" Fuuka mentioned. Everyone thought about it in their heads and they all agreed. "Yeah. Yesterday, the moment we collected our thoughts and pondered on the situation, the mission already started," Akihiko realized. "Just what is it that these so called 'Reapers' are planning?" Mitsuru said as well. "In any case, we should probably relay this message to Sakuraba as well-"_

_"No need, I already got it." Neku was standing by the door to his room, waving his phone around. "Seems to me like we're all sharing the same mission again. Knowing the Reaper's Game, this can't be a coincidence. Well, in any case, we should use this time wisely." Neku offered his suggestion to S.E.E.S._

_"I agree. Why don't we use this time to better our surroundings? The only place where we know where to meet up is the Scramble Crossing and Sakuraba-san's. It's only logical that we know where we are, don't you all think?" Ken Amada suggested. Everyone went into a thinking position, taking Ken's idea into consideration. Neku, on the other hand, asked the young boy, "You sure you're in elementary school? You may look like one, but you are waaay too mature for someone your age." Ken sheepishly brought his right hand up to the back of his hand and ruffled his hair a bit, smirking while he's at it. "I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much."_

_Koromaru barked in affirmation. "Koro-chan says, 'Sounds like a plan.'" Neku opened his mouth to ask, but closed it thinking, _Screw it, won't even ask.

_"Hmmm, yes. I agree with Amada. Given the current situation, it is highly probably that we'll be residing in Shibuya in the following days to come. Once we're done with breakfast and/or grooming, we'll head out to explore the city." Mitsuru ordered. All the S.E.E.S. members minus Junpei plus Neku nodded. Akihiko walked over to Ken and rubbed his head. "Taking initiative huh? You're growing stronger every day Ken." the silver-haired boxer remarked. Ken gleefully laughed, then tried to get his senpai's hands off of his head._

_"Yaaaaawwnnn, what's with the noise out here?" Kaede Sakuraba came out of her bedroom door, still wearing her yukata from last night. "Oh, ummm... Our apologies Mrs. Sakuraba. I didn't know we were so loud. I hope we didn't disturb you or anything," Yukari apologized for the group and bowed towards the elder Sakuraba. "No its alright, just wanted to know what that ruckus was about." Kaede smiled. _

_"So what's for breakfast? Neku, you're making breakie, called it. No take-backs." She pointed to Neku. "Whu- MOM!" The spike-head was completely caught off guard. "Well, let's get ourselves brushed first. Then I'll make breakfast."_

_So the S.E.E.S. members went and took turns using the washrooms to clean themselves up. The girls took turns brushing their teeth and fixing their hair, while the Akihiko, Ken and Neku brushed and wiped their faces. Once they were all accounted for, Neku went ahead and started making scrambled eggs. Fuuka offered to help, claiming that she had gotten better in her cooking over the past couple of years. S.E.E.S. was reluctant at first, knowing firsthand Fuuka's prior inexperience with cooking, emphasis on inexperience. But if she says that she's gotten better, you wouldn't know it until you tried it._

_It was around 9:45 when cooking started. Neku and Fuuka were quite the team when it came to cooking. Whatever ingredients Neku asked for, Fuuka would know what to get. It also seemed the orange-haired boy deviated from the traditional way of making eggs. Instead of scrambling it on the pan, Neku would flip the heated, scrambled bits of the egg like an omelet. It should also be noted that he added strands and strips of bacon and flipped the egg along with it. He also used soy sauce and spread it along the scrambled egg. In a matter of an hour, Neku and Fuuka finished cooking 10 dishes of scrambled eggs, 9 for the people at the table and one for the sleepyhead. As everyone ate, all of them except Kaede had an expression of surprise worn on their faces. Of course, they never knew Neku's cooking potential, but it tasted really good. The soy sauce and bacon complimented with the taste of scrambled egg. _

_"Mmmm, yup. That's my Neku. Knows how to really hit the spot," the auburn-haired mother commented Neku's skill. "Mm, yeah. This is pretty awesome! Fuuka helped out with this too? You've really gotten better, even if only cooperative!" Akihiko commented. Fuuka flushed red at such a compliment. It may not be the best moment of her life, but it's up there._

_"So this is scrambled eggs..." Aigis commented. S.E.E.S. looked at her direction. Aigis was an android, they knew that. But still, she was growing human traits. They all suddenly realized, Kaede Sakuraba didn't know that Aigis was a robot. "Uh... About our friend's appearance-" Mitsuru was about to say. "Pshh, an mechanical maiden is the least of the weirdest things I've ever seen." Kaede commented._

_"Is that so? I would like to hear about these said weird things one day," Aigis practically challenged the elder woman. "Whoa! When did Aigis get a challenging personality? Then again, we're all still changing aren't we?" Yukari remarked. S.E.E.S. all had a little chuckle, reveling in past memories with a gleeful attitude. _

_The table became animated over small talk. After the events that transpired over the past day, the group was able to converse while enjoying their scrambled eggs. Yukari and Aigis discussed about school; both of them were accepted with top honours to Osaka U. Akihiko and Mitsuru were conversing about how college and university were treating them. Turns out Akihiko took some time off-school to go on a training expedition to better his strengths, while Mitsuru was still building up her company from scratch. She says that it will see a much more brighter future. The latter continuing to steer the Group into a better future. Fuuka, naturally, talked with Neku about his experiences with food. He replied with saying a good friend of his had been teaching him for the past 2 years. _

_Meanwhile, on the other hand, Ken and Koromaru sat by Junpei's bedside, vigilantly watching over him like a vulture stalking his prey. The only thing worth watching however was the snot bubble that was growing and shrinking with every snore that was emitted from Junpei. The eggs prepared for the capped teen sat beside Ken._

_10:30 came around when everyone was finished their plates. Everyone was satisfied, to say the least. The elder Sakuraba rubbed her belly in complete satisfaction, then belched for a good 3 seconds. "...What?" A slight chuckle permeated the table, no doubt everyone held it back to spare the elder woman the humilation. The group then went to work on cleaning up the table. With the combined help of every awake member, everything was cleaned in record time of 10 minutes. _

_S.E.E.S., with not a second wasted, got ready to begin their expedition around Shibuya. Yukari, Aigis, Fuuka, Ken and Koromaru were the first ones to leave. "Wait. I need to talk with you for a moment." Kaede directed her attention towards Mitsuru, just as she was about to reach the door. "Hm? What's the matter?" Akihiko wondered. He did a double take towards where his friend was. From where he was standing, Kaede Sakuraba was giving Mitsuru a death glare. It was a rare sight for anyone aside from S.E.E.S. to stare down a Kirijo and have their attention._

_"Hmm?" This time, Neku popped his head from his bedroom. "You should stay here Neku. This concerns you as well." The mother instructed her son. An eerie silence filled the room for the next few minutes, aside from the snoring. Then Kaede spoke up. "A lot of people have been giving me their sympathies ever since that day 13 years ago. At first, I didn't know what to make of it. The fact that one of the most, if not the most important person in my life had disappeared from it in an instant. Due to 'natural causes,' so the letter had said. 13 long years it has been, and now the moment has come. The moment to finally obtain the answers to put put my mind at ease." The auburn-haired lady said darkly._

_This had confused Mitsuru. "What are you trying to do..." the Kirijo heiress asked, not in the scared state, but out of curiosity._

_"What do you know about Rai Sakuraba?" The question had been thrown out. Neku widened his eyes in shock. "Wait... what does this have to do with Dad?" The curious spike-head asked. "13 years ago, not one but two letters were sent to this household. Both of them contained death notifications about Minato... and your father. I had hidden the one about your father as you had already suffered enough over Minato. So tell me, Do you know a man named Rai Sakuraba?" asked Kaede, a little more assertive when she asked Mitsuru the second time. _

_"I don't know what you-"_

_"Don't lie to me Mitsuru Kirijo-san!" It was Mitsuru and Akihiko's turn to widen their eyes. Mitsuru sighed with an saddened feel. "I can assure you, your husband-"_

_"Ah, gotcha! You do know him! Don't give me that 'natural cause' crap, I've heard enough of those for a lifetime!" Kaede abruptly raised her right arm and pointed it towards the Empress. Mitsuru's expression had not changed, her sorrowed expression still lingers. Akihiko couldn't do anything but stand there. Here Mitsuru was, forced to bear the punishments that was meant for the Kirijo group once again. "What happened to my husband? At this point, my capacity for anger has been expelled. All I want are answers. At least that will put my mind to rest. And don't worry. I'll still believe it if it's anything out of the ordinary. With whatever happened to my son 3 years ago, I can pretty much believe in anything right about now." The mother lowered her arm. _

_Mitsuru sighed, clutching her left arm with her right hand. "...Where to even begin... You know about the incident that started 13 years ago at Tatsumi Port Island? About the explosion that had cost the lives of hundreds of innocents?" Mitsuru asked. "Yes. It was a very well-talked-about topic back in the day. After the explosion, there was a disease that spread like wild-fire across the island. Something called "Apathy Syndrome," if I remembered correctly." _

_"Correct. But more on that later. You see, the Kirijo group had discovered power from these beings called 'Shadows,' monsters borne from the negative emotions of people's thoughts. The Group got carried away with their experiments, and that's how the explosion occured. Hundreds of innocent lives were destroyed amidst the blast. Among them..." Mitsuru struggled to bring out the next part of the sentence. "...were Minato Arisato's parents..." Neku was shocked to hear this, to say the least. "Wait, ONLY his parents? What about him? The letter that was sent to us said that the whole Arisato family had died. What happened to Minato past that point?" He questioned the Kirijo heiress in a slightly desperate manner. "Unfortunately, the answer to that eludes me._

_"Back to the matter at hand, what was borne out the explosion was a hidden time called the 'Dark Hour,' a hidden hour that occurs at midnight. I won't go into details, but Shadows are most active in this hour, and the bulk of them reside in a A 263-floor skyscraper by the name of 'Tartarus.' A colossal tower that only appears during the Dark Hour... and a monument to the Kirijo Groups sins..." Mitsuru paused for a moment, with pain written all over her face. "Sigh, bad memories sure have a way to bite us in the ass..." Akihiko remarked. Of all people, he should be the one to understand the Empress' pain._

_"Ok. I follow the story up until this point, but that doesn't explain what happened to Rai." Kaede said, not in an outburst of anger, but in a more curious tone. "I'm reaching that point. The scientists grew interest in Tartarus, and they craved more information about the monsters that roamed its interior. So my father and I, alongside a group of bodyguards and a fellow scientist begun an expedition into Tartarus. Amongst the bodyguards... was Rai Sakuraba."_

_Mitsuru paused for a moment, giving Kaede the time to sink all the information in. The moment passed, and the elder woman came to the conclusion. "I see... and I suppose one of those 'Shadow' monsters you speak of killed my husband?" _

_"...yes. We were only just browsing our surroundings. All of the sudden, one of the guards just writhed in pain, and in that instant, a Shadow had devoured him... There was nothing that could have stopped it..." Another few seconds of silence had passed. Both Sakuraba's were a little perplexed, to say the least. They weren't able to say a word as the information gradually sunk in. Akihiko leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, equally as silent. But he had heard this story before, so confusion didn't affect him._

_"...Thank you." Kaede was the first to speak out. Mitsuru was surprised at this. "For what?" She asked. "For putting my mind at ease. At least I can finally rest in peace. You have my forgiveness." Kaede had her spirits uplifted, as she re-grew her optimistic smile. "Well, I must leave you to your business then. As for me, I need to do some work." The elder Sakuraba retreated back to her bedroom and closed the door. "She's one real piece of work. I don't think anyone would take a story like that too easily," Akihiko remarked. He was true though; Kaede's unlike anyone he's ever met before._

_Mitsuru and Akihiko then turned around towards Sakuraba, who was still trying to break from his state of perplexion. "...Sakuraba." Mitsuru attempted to reach out to her confounded companion. "Heh, so that's the true story then. Mom hasn't told me anything about this since that day. No time to break it to me than today I suppose," Neku spoke. _

_"Sakuraba, do you hate me for the cost of your father?" Mitsuru asked him. "Nah. I guess I'm... just sad I suppose. But for me, better to figure out the truth than live in ignorance. The question is: why are you so beat up about it?" Neku now asked her. "I want to do everything in my power to atone for my family's past. Pull my company of its sins, and take it forward in a brighter light. To do that, I need to shoulder the pain that the Kirijo Group caused." Mitsuru declared. "...That doesn't mean you have to do it alone," Neku spoke. "But it's MY burden. No one can bear it but I..."_

_"Neku's right, if your friends can't help you with your problems, then what good are they?" Akihiko pitched in. Mitsuru turned towards him. "It's the bonds we have with each other that keep us together, keeps us sane. They shape who we are and what we'll become in the future. Heh, Shinji sorta threw that at my face." It was Akihiko's turn to reminisce._

_"I think we had enough about beating ourselves over negative memories. We should get going." Neku suggested. Mitsuru nodded, while Akihiko said, "I think I'll stick here with Snores-a-lot. Someone's gotta look over him when you guys are off on patrol." _

_"Okay, we'll meet up at Scramble Crossing at 12:00. I'll text the others. Goodbye Akihiko." And with that, Mitsuru left the apartment, messaging the rest of S.E.E.S. while she exited. "Alright, I'm gonna bolt too. Make sure you tell Junpei that breakfast is over there." Neku pointed to the table beside the sleeper's makeshift bed. "You got it," Akihiko confirmed. Neku then left the room in similar fashion to Mitsuru. _

_Between now and the present-time, it was Akihiko, and the grating noise coming from the mouth of the Magician._

* * *

_11: 27 (Present time)_

"Damn, yet another victim of the Kirijo Group's mistakes..." Junpei said, remarking the story. "You know if Mitsuru catches you saying that, she'll execute you until you plead, then execute you some more." Akihiko joked as he sat down on a nearby chair with a cup of tea. "Gee, you don't have to remind me..." Junpei knew all too well the aftermaths of Mitsuru Kirijo's infamous "executions."

"So what got you springing up all shocked. You nearly made me spill my tea." Now Akihiko was the curious one. "... Oh, um. You see..." Junpei drifted off, his head dropped. "I uh, had a dream. Well, more like a nightmare. It was about Chidori."

"Yoshino? Well, I can understand the dream part, but a nightmare? You're the last person I'd expect to have a nightmare, let alone one about her." The boxer sipped his tea.

"Yeah, but this one... How should I put this. She murdered me in this one, and I felt every sting. It was the most vivid dream I've ever experienced." Akihiko stopped drinking, the aroma-filled liquid lingering inside his mouth. He took the cup away from his mouth and set it on the table. "Normally, a nightmare wouldn't be much of a problem, but given our circumstances, we can't exactly leave all of that to chance. You tell the others about this when you can, alright?" Akihiko requested. "Yeah... I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Junpei said, taking his senpai's word to heart. "So should we head out?"

"Yeah, we should." And with that, Akihiko gulped down the last of tea, regardless of how hot it was, and they both exited the apartment.

* * *

_11:37_

_WildKat_

"Welcome, what can I do for ya?" The self-proclaimed barista of the café, Mr. Hanekoma, greeted the customer.

"Ah Neku, here to do some work, or do you want the usual?" He greeted the head-phone toting orange-head. "I'll just take the usual today Mr. Hanekoma, I'm in a rush." Neku ordered. "Alright you got it." The laid-back man retreated back into the kitchen to concoct Neku's coffee.

As the steam erupted from the coffee machine, Neku could only center his thoughts onto one thing.

_What did I do to get back into the Reaper's Game? I tired of dying and playing someone's second fiddle. God, I'm trying to pick up the pieces of my life, I really am. So why aren't you letting me?_

A text beep interrupted Neku's thoughts.

* * *

**A/N: Wow, I'm back after two months. I think I apologized one too many times, but I feel as if I should. Writers block hit me and it lingered for awhile. Even so, thank you to all the readers for enjoying the story.**

**Please feel free to submit any constructive reviews you might have.**

**Have a wonderful Easter  
God Bless.**


	8. Chapter 8: Preparing for the Worst

**A/N: I wanted the last chapter to show what connection Neku's family had with the Port Island incident. Plus it's gonna be a plot point for later on... Well in any case, on with the show. I'll try to get chapters in as soon as I possibly can (which honestly doesn't say much due to month-wide gaps), so please bear with me.**

**Reviews and Criticisms are always welcome. Please try to point out errors in grammar or plot. It would be much appreciated**

**Disclaimer: Persona and TWEWY belong to Atlus and Square Enix respectively.**

* * *

_Ch. 8: The Magician's Lament Pt.3: Preparing for the Worst_

* * *

_11:38_

_WildKat_

A text interrupted Neku's thoughts. _Hmm? _he thought. Neku picked up his cell, thinking that the mission came early. But instead it was a text from one of his friends. Well, one of his more precious friends.

_Hey Neku, what've you been up to? It's been a while since we last met up with each other. How are things with you? I know I haven't exactly planned anything together, what with the new job I got. You already know about that XD. So anyways, call me up sometime soon alright? I'm really wishing that I can meet up with you and the other guys as well. Better yet, you can come over to my workplace! Either way works. _

_3  
-Shiki_

_P.S. Mr. Mew says hi!_

The message ends there. Neku smiled. _Same ol' Shiki. I just hope she doesn't take the whole Reaper's Game dilemma too far. IF I tell her that is. Then again, I should confess the truth to mom as well...RRGH, WHY CAN'T LIFE BE SIMPLE ANYMORE?! _ Neku thought. Lifting a hand up to his forehead, he sighed in frustration. It seemed as if life wasn't finished with him yet. He closed his cell and put it back into his pocket, keeping a mental note for Shiki for later.

"Here you go. One ice milk tea. Just the way you like it," Mr. Hanekoma brought Neku's order. Neku took the drink and stared at it for awhile, aware that he did just eat breakfast a moment ago. "What's on your mind Phones?" The elder of the two asked him. The spiky-haired boy did a slow double-take towards Hanekoma. "It's nothing, really-"

"You know you do a pretty shit job when you're trying to lie to me. You're usually really cheery whenever you come over to my place. What with everything in the past that's happened, you needed some lightening up. Frankly, you've been a lot more cheerful, and you definitely deserve itin s. But I know people with things on their mind when I see them. Anything you wanna share?" Neku could only snort. The elder obviously knew him well over the past couple of years, all the way to the point where Mr. Hanekoma would read him like a children's story.

It didn't seem like Mr. Hanekoma was about to let this one go; Neku could only sigh in slight annoyance. "Well... It seems that I have been dragged into the Reaper's Game once again..."

To Neku's surprise, when he looked up at Mr. Hanekoma, even he had a look of surprise on his face as well. "Really? Huh, no one told me how that happened."

"Wait, what?! Even you don't know?" Neku jumped out of his stool and onto his feet as he leaned towards Mr. Hanekoma. Things did not add up, as Mr. H was supposed to be the Game's producer. He was supposed to know the ins-and-outs of whatever happens with the Game. So how could something so simple as eight new contestants being drafted completely pass his mind?

"Yeah, guilty as charged. Blondie didn't say anything either."

"Joshua didn't tell you anything either?" Neku asked as he slowly descended back onto his stool.

"To be honest, the guy has been rather reclusive nowadays. Not that him keeping to himself was anything new, but even more so this time. Word is, the Game has a new Conductor pulling the strings this time. Truth be told, after Kitaniji, I was itching for a new Conductor to take the reins. But it still makes me wonder, what kind of jacked-up events are gonna happen this time around?"

Neku pondered upon this as well. With a new Conductor running the show this time around, who knows what kind of insane stuff might possibly happen? "Any idea who this new Conducter might be?"

"Nope, not one clue. At first I'd thought it'd be Konishi. You know, 'cause she's been wanting that throne for who knows how long. But it's not even her." Hanekoma scratched his chin. "But I'll tell you this: Joshua has taken a new fancy towards this new guy. He rarely ever does that."

Neku brought his fist up to his chin, entering a thinking pose. _So, a person neither I nor the Reapers have any knowledge of. Me alongside eight others whom I've never met before, and they seem to know who Minato is. Why do I have the hunch that all these things are connected together? _

"What about the other Reapers? You hear anything from them?" Neku asked again.

"They're about as clueless as I am. Even so, they're still following orders."

"How about this week's Game Master?"

"Word is, Konishi is taking that spot again. Figures that if the Iron Maiden wasn't getting the Conductor seat again, might as well go with something that comforts her or whatever."

"Is _pi-face _around with her?"

By _pi-face_, Neku meant one of his former enemies: Sho Minamimoto. A huge math nut on the brink of insanity. Last time they fought, Joshua nearly killed himself when saving Neku from the crazed mathematician going kamikaze.

"Surprisingly, no. He's somewhere else entirely."

"...Alright, well. Thanks for the info." Neku finished up his milk tea, then put a ¥400 bill on the counter top. "Ok, no prob-"

_CRASH!  
BANG!  
SMASH!_

Before the elder man was able to finish his sentence, a huge hole had just erupted at the front entrance of the café. Whatever customers inside the café started to scream. Few of them started to duck under the tables, while others did the more smarter thing and started evacuate to the nearest emergency exits located by the wall adjacent of the destroyed mess. "What the hell?! Taboo noise aren't supposed to attack the RG!" Mr. Hanekoma was surprised, to say the least. Neku had thought that he'd be more concerned about the giant hole in the wall.

"That's no Taboo noise!" Neku assured him. "DUCK!"

All of the sudden, three silhouettes of black started speeding through the hole and towards Neku.

"PERSONA!" Neku brought out his Orpheus pin and squeezed it, therefore evoking his Persona.

In a split second, Orpheus had appeared as flashed in thin air. The Persona abruptly grabbed the lyre on its back and swatted the first black blur like a baseball bat. Immediately as the first blur hit the wall with tremendous force, it exploded into a black pile of slime. Taking its right hand from the handle of the lyre, Orpheus grabbed the second blur as it sped to him. Now removing the left hand from the instrument, the Persona threw its arm out like if it was throwing something. A small explosion erupted where the third silhouette was, therefore dissolving the attacker. Neku took a look at whatever Orpheus held on its right hand. It was a spherical monster, white with black stripes. with an abnormal mouth and elongated tongue that was waggling about. There was a blue mask attached to its back, and solid red lines protruding from it. This was a shadow classified as the Lying Hablerie.

"Tch, things just keep getting weirder..." Neku raised his right arm as he let the last word trail off. In compliance, Orpheus raised his arm in synchronization.

"AND WEIRDER!" Neku swung his arm down, and Orpheus crushed the Shadow on the floor,. The shadow exploded in absurd amounts of black goo. Whatever matter comprised the shadow splattered all over the walls of the cafe.

Neku panted as the fight had took out a little bit of his stamina. Orpheus started to dissolve in particles of light blue, and the particles flew back into Neku's left palm which held the Evoker pin.

"I see you got some new moves since we last met." Mr. Hanekoma popped out from underneath the countertop. "Still, what a mess!" He exclaimed.

No kidding too. Shards of wood and glass permeated the floor, not to mention the black slime that was covering the walls and floor. The foreign matter did however, start dissolving into nothingness, as if they weren't there to begin with. There was still one person hiding from underneath the table. It was a man with light brown hair in a suit, and he was trembling like mad.

Neku walked up to him. "W-W-WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" The man was obviously losing his cool. Neku grabbed him by the arm, got him to stand up straight, and brushed off whatever dust or debris that was still sticking on the poor guy. "Relax, just run home. Tell your wife or whatever that you had a rough day, say that you need to go to bed, and sleep it off for the rest of today. By the time you wake up, it'll all be a dream." Neku convinced the still-panic-stricken man.

"Yeah... good call..." And with that the man started to walk awkwardly towards the emergency exit.

"HAHAHAHA! WOW! You certainly got better at sweet-talking people." Mr. Hanekoma joked. "However, who's gonna pay for all this crap?!" He nonchalantly proclaimed.

"I dunno, your problem." Neku nonchalantly said. "In any case, I think I've worn out my welcome here. Thanks again for your help." With that, the orange haired boy started to walk through the hole in the wall.

"Hey kid!" Neku turned around, only to catch some object that Mr. Hanekoma threw at him. "What are-"

"I heard that you wanted a pair of these. Figures that since you actually DID grow a pair over the course of a couple years, and the fact that I might have to apologize on my part for putting you through such endeavours, consider this a little gift and a forgive me note. Good timing too, as you're probably gonna need it."

Neku looked down at the gift he received. What he held in his hands was a pouch, or to be more specific, it was a makeshift hip sheath. A sheath for a pair of Ecrisma sticks, one on each side, and said weapons were in each sheath. Both titanium Ecrisma sticks were 32" in length and one inch in diameter. At the base of each stick was a magnet, so that the sticks can attach to become a staff. On the top was what seemed like a surface in which electricity could course through. Both sticks had a wave design engraved on the surface.

"You're seriously gonna gi- wait a second." Neku analyzed his new gift further. "HEY! These are the sticks I wrote as a Christmas gift! How in the world did you find this out?!" Neku asked the older man with an incredulous look plastered on his face.

"Yeah, I MAY have looked over some of your stuff. I won't say how, that's best left a mystery."

"You did wha-?! You DO NOT LOOK OVER OTHER PEOPLE'S THINGS WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION!"

"Hey, nobody ever told me that when I signed up to be Producer. So I guess you're stuck with it. In any case, I'm gonna go find someone who can pay for my stuff. Alright? Take care!" With that, Mr. Hanekoma went out through the emergency exit.

"MR. H!" It was no use. Neku's voice could not reach him anymore. "Tch, still trying to leave the burdens of others on me are ya?"

**CRASH! **_Whuh?_

_Thou art I, and I am thou.  
Thou hast strengthened an established bond._

_It brings thee closer to the truth._

_Thou shalt be granted many blessings for creating Personae of the Hierophant Arcana_

Power built itself inside Neku, as he has gained a new Social Link.

(sigh) _I STILL need to figure out how this system works. Well, I suppose I have to make do with the gifts others are giving me... even though it does tend to piss me off to a high degree. But this is weird; last time I encountered Shadows, I was still in the UG. Is it possible that the Shadows are able to break through the frequency and are able to invade the RG? If that's the case, then people must have seen me use Orpheus. In any case, the only thing I can do is to hope that this didn't garner too much attention. People won't be able to see me once I enter the UG again. Just gotta hope that applies to the Shadows as well._

Neku exited the café, with new thoughts brewing in his mind. One thing's for sure: this game is going to be a lot more dangerous than the last.

* * *

_11:58 a.m._

_Scramble Crossing_

"The others should be coming in right about now," Mitsuru notified Yukari, who was busy gazing out towards different directions, looking to see if any S.E.E.S. members were coming. "I must say however, this situation does bring back memories."

"You can say that again." replied Yukari, "It's been a long while since I last summoned my Persona. It's really tiring!"

Mitsuru smiled, "What's wrong Yukari? After many arduous battle in Tartarus, now you complain about weariness?" The red-haired Empress joked.

"Well, it HAS been two years. Back when we were still in high school, trying to switch from regular-day life to battling monsters of darkness for the sake of humanity, it seemed like second nature to us. Now with freshman life and the fact that no such life-threatening incidents since that time had occured, I'm starting to get a little off my game."

"Hmph," Mitsuru continued to smile, "Although I am grateful that I can still continue my education, trying to balance that and the seat of CEO at my fingertips, I must say that the life of balancing two priorities has not left me at all. Sometimes I envy you Yukari."

"Why's that? You're Mitsuru Kirijo, you have everything that everyone would want to kill for."

"But that is the problem. Even now, I still wish the burden inside me could be lightened a little. I still wish to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, like you and everyone else do. But alas, the onus of priorities must be mine to bear. It always has been, and it always will be." Mitsuru said gloomily. Yukari could do nothing but feel pity for her.

"Hmm, tell you what. When this whole thing is over, I'm gonna take you out for a little shopping spree. To try and alleviate some of that gloom and doom inside your head." Yukari said with a smile.

"You would continue do that for me?"

"Oh c'mon! I've done it with you for so many times! This shouldn't be any less different!" Again, Yukari's upbeat attitude tends to give the Kirijo some warmth in her cold solace.

"Hey what's this I hear about shopping dates?" A familiar and joking voice rings out. Mitsuru and Yukari looked behind thm, and there comes Akihiko with Junpei in tow.

"What did you guys investigate?" The boxer asked the female duo. "Nothing much. We went out to the north side of town, mainly around the AMX district and we circled around back to the Shibu Dept. Store. It's been awhile since I last came to Shibuya for a family trip, but you just can't forget how many stores and shopping complexes there are here." Yukari reminisced. "Okay there Yuka-tan, we can deal with shopping later." Junpei reassured her. Yukari did a double take towards Junpei, and made a pouting face. "Shut up Stupei and let me revel back in my memories!"

"(sigh), in any case, where's Ken, Ai-chan, Fuuka, Koro, and Neku?" Junpei asked.

"Over here!" Fuuka yelled out, waving while she was at it. Koromaru sprinted towards Junpei, and sat down panting whilst waggling his tail. "Hey there buddy. You been good?" The capped male asked the dog. The Shiba-Inu barked happily in compliance.

"So what did you discover?" Mitsuru asked the other group.

"We walked towards A-East and down to Pork City. Man that place is huge. Considering our limited time frame, we didn't really bother with taking that first elevator up." Ken spoke for the group.

"I see. Now, where's Neku? It should be about time for the next objective to start..." Mitsuru wondered. She reached into her skirt pocket, picked up her phone and flipped it open. The time now reads:

11:59:58 a.m.

11:59:59 a.m.

12:00:00 p.m.

_PING PING!_

Lo and behold, the next mission came up. "I feel as if we should wait until Neku-san shows up before we open the message- OW!" Fuuka yelped as that familiar sting hit everybody's right palms. Junpei opened his hand up and looked at it.

8:00:00

7:59:59

7:59:58

"Huh, seems that we got eight hours this time around. Why's that?" Junpei asked. Everyone else just shrugged.

"Mitsuru-san. If I may..." Aigis asked Mitsuru. It seemed as if the Aeon android has something up on her mind. "Yes, what is it Aigis?" The red-haired lady asked.

"Neku-san... I don't exactly know how to say it, but something about him just seems rather familiar about him."

"Well yeah. The guy's almost practically a spitting image of our leader!" Junpei added.

"Indeed. Aside from the same taste in music, they also tend to have the same demeanor as well." Ken included.

"It's not just that. He also happens to share the same power as Minato-san." Now this got everyone's attention. "Hmm, it isn't like this wasn't supposed to be expected. Regardless, that does offer up some thoughts. We should keep this in mind during the next operation." Mitsuru observed.

"Sorry I'm late. Had some small business to take care of." Speaking of the devil, the orange- haired man arrived on the scene. "Well, someone enjoyed being fashionably late. Jesus, you look like hell." Akihiko said. Dirt and wood splinters stuck on various places on Neku's clothes. "Heh, you'll find that this tends to happen a lot in the Games. In any case, I've already read the mission. You guys?" The headphone-wearing leader asked. One by one, they were opening their phones.

_To run headfirst into a war is folly. One must prepare themselves for the worst case scenarios to come_

_-The Reapers._

"Great, more cryptic messages, as if Shadows being here wasn't enough." Yukari complained. "I don't know about you, this seems pretty straightforward to me." Akihiko countered.

"So, a war huh? So what? Are we just gonna stock up on weapons for the first mission?" Junpei asked. "It does seem like it Junpei-kun. We still have about eight hours to do this mission though.

"It's weird though. Usually the Reapers would give a strict deadline or something like that. This just seems too forgiving." Neku wondered. "Perhaps they want to give us solace after the hectic events of yesterday?" Fuuka offered an opinion. "Believe me when I say: the last thing the Reapers feel is sorry." Neku answered.

"Regardless, we should use this time to our advantage." Mitsuru recommended. Everyone nodded. "It seems that our shopping trip has come much earlier than expected Yukari."

"Woohoo! Shopping spree tim- Wait, do we have any yen on us do we?" Yukari remembered. Considering that they might be possibly dead or ghosts or something of the like, they may or may not have much yen on them.

"Relax, I got you guys covered. Last time, I entered the game. I pretty much farmed out millions of yen from slaying monsters and whatever else of the like." Neku offered.

"Wow, covered up on money as well. The similarities are endless." Junpei joked again.

"C'mon, I'll show you guys a place where you can get some clothes." Neku waved his arms in a follow-me gesture. "Wait, shouldn't we get some armour or weapons?" Ken asked.

"In the Game, clothes count as armour basically." answered Neku. "Huh, even more incentive to go shopping." Yukari pondered.

"I'll fill you all in on the details later. Just come follow me." Neku said. And so Neku with S.E.E.S. in tow set off for another adventure. Who knows what kind of dangers are yet to come?

_Tch, guess I'm meeting Shiki sooner than I thought I was going to. I hope she doesn't freak out too much that I'm in the Reapers Game again..._

* * *

**A/N: SIGH... 2 months huh? Sorry readers and viewers, the dreaded exams are soon to follow, not before 30% summatives kill me first. It's a miracle that I managed to get this chapter finished. And yes, I like Ecrisma sticks, just in case anyone wants to know. Thank you to those who enjoyed this brainchild of mine. Just so happens I got 2000+ views. So to all the readers who are reading this story, thank you all!**

**Reviews and definitely criticisms are most welcome. I would like to hear what went well with the story and what needs improvement. Also, please kindly tell me if the characters are too OOC. I'd like to try and make this as canonically correct as possible**

**Until next time guys!**


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